Stimulating ODL research at UNISA: exploring the role and potential impact of the UNESCO Chair

ABSTRACT

This paper offers insights into the establishment of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Chair of Open Distance Learning (ODL) at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The aim of the UNESCO Chair is to stimulate ODL research at UNISA. The paper briefly describes UNISA, which is the largest dedicated distance education institution on the continent of Africa, with student enrolments in excess of 300,000. Notwithstanding its size and mandate to provide expanded access to quality higher education to previously excluded blacks, UNISA is hampered by a lack of capacity in ODL research in the form of articles, the UNESCO Chair at UNISA was established to respond to this challenge of a lack of ODL research capacity. The paper (1) provides a brief outline of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme; (2) outlines the objectives of the Chair in relation to UNISA’s challenges of capacity for technology-assisted teaching, learning and research; (3) maps out the imperative for technology-supported teaching, learning and research at UNISA with respect to digital literacy, digital proficiency, and digital fluency; and (4) closes with some concluding remarks.

KEYWORDS:

• UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme
• UNISA
• Open Distance Learning (ODL)
• Technology-assisted teaching
• UNESCO Chair of ODL

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the College of Education, University of South Africa [Executive Dean’s Research Support Fund].

Notes on contributors

Moeketsi Letseka

Moeketsi Letseka is holder of the endowed UNESCO Chair on open distance learning (ODL) at the University of South Africa. He is editor of Africa Education Review, an international scholarly journal that is jointly published by UNISA Press and Taylor & Francis in the UK. He has edited the following books in ODL: Open Distance Learning (ODL) through the Philosophy of Ubuntu (Nova Publishers: New York, 201;   Open Distance Learning (ODL) in South (Nova Publishers: New York, 2015)