Re-Imagining Coursework Masters; for Online Learning Based on Research and Design Principles

Abstract

There are many reasons why courses at all educational levels are moving partly or entirelyonline. Contact higher education institutions are embracing blended learning as state of theart, but are cautious to embark on fully online offerings due to a present student base thatprefer personal contact with lecturers and peers. But expectations from society are changing.Distance learning, with the exception of teacher qualifications, was previously restricted toone South African institution. Changes in legislation regarding distance education in 2014, ishaving far-reaching implications for residential universities. The University of Pretoria withabout 50,000 contact students, has decided to embark on hybrid delivery of courses in order toreach more people, from more places. As blended learning using the Blackboard Learn coursemanagement system (CMS) is currently widely implemented, it was deemed quite feasible toincrease the online components of courses and eventually delivering them fully online.