The politics of e-learning in South African higher education

1. The politics of e-learning in South African higher education Neetha Ravjee (nravjee@uwc.ac.za) University of the Western Cape July 2006

2. Structure of the presentation • South African context • Recent trends in higher education • Major approaches to the relation of ICTs to higher education change • Globalisation thesis • Digital divide perspectives • Twin forces of change: technology & the market • The cultural politics of e-learning • Two empirical cases • Collaborative frameworks • Are ICTs re-shaping access to higher education? • Issues

3. South African context • Emerging democracy • Deep divisions • Higher education context • Policy imperatives (redress, democratic citizenship, productivity) • Competing discourses on higher education transformation

4. Recent trends • SA Higher Education institutions • E-learning practices • Policies and institutional structures • New terminology • New costs • Emerging issues • New organisational forms • Public-private partnerships • Emerging tensions and issues

5. Major approaches I Positivist approaches: See a causal relationship • ICTs cause changes in other areas (on their own or with other variables in context) • Overly optimistic • Underscore the power dynamics of ICT-lead changes II Critical approaches: See complex relations • More cautious • Question assumptions of causality • Emphasise power dynamics; examine effects and meanings

6. Major approaches III Emphasis on the functionality of technology +ve Globalisation & higher education literature • “lynchpin” metaphor; ICT-led change 0 Digital Divide literature • “tool” metaphor; emphasise differential access; new divides arise out of existing economic, political and social divides -ve Commercialisation of higher education • Technology and market as “twin forces” of change

7. Major approaches IV Stepping outside the emphasis on “role” • Effects and meanings, not “role” (technology can exclude, stigmatise) • Shifts attention back to inherited institutional cultures, relationships, curriculum; the academic experience, etc. • Examine relations with other meanings of change

8. Two empirical examples • Collaborative frameworks • Are ICTs re-shaping access to higher education? • ICTs as the great equaliser • E-learning in contact institutions • E-learning in distance institutions • E-learning in dual-mode institutions • Who are the distance students in contact institutions? • How do the success rates of distance students compare to those of contact students? • How can we explain the differences?

9. Issues of distribution • New costs, unequal resources and competing institutional priorities* • Differential access to hardware, software and the Internet (across institutions, and within, between faculties and departments) • Relation to differential access to higher education • Bandwidth, regional solutions and national regulatory structures • Choice of software across institutions* • Proprietary options (e.g. WebCT; Blackboard) • Open source solutions (e.g. KEWL) • Shifting of costs to students

10. Issues of recognition • Pedagogical relationships • Approaches to multiculturalism • Institutional support and training • Inter-institutional & intersubjective relations • Persistence of colonial stereotypes • Effects of essentialist conceptions of race, gender and culture on understandings of learning styles • Collaborative frameworks • Content, language and critical literacies • Changing cultures (institutional, academic, disciplinary, etc.) • Access to ICTs & Access to higher education

11. Meanings & effects of change • Intersections between material and non-material issues • The relationship between ICT-led changes and other meanings of change (e.g. market-led changes) • Relation of ICT-enhanced practices, policies, structures to other teaching and learning practices • A new type of institution? • Frameworks of change