Pro Vice Chancellor

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Pro Vice Chancellors Portfolio Presentation
to CODsPVC - Prof Narend Baijnath 18 February
2013
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Background

• Since the beginning of 2012 the PVC Office is
  responsible for cohering the following related
  capacities that need to be cohered, enhanced,
  and steered as we shape our pathway into the
  digital age-
• ICT
• Open Distance and e-Learning
• Procurement
• Open Education Resources (OERs)
• Academic Planning
• Organizational Architecture

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Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor
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The PVC Portfolio Direct Reports

• Academic Planning
• Accreditation
• PQM
• Community Engagement
• ICT
• Planning and Governance
• ICT innovation and Business Support
• Academic Systems
• Professionals and Administration Systems
• Infrastructure and Operations
• Procurement
• Demand and Acquisition
• Inventory Management
• Supplier and Contract Management
• Travel and Accommodation Management

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Projects in the Office of the PVC
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Signature Courses
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OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES

• REUSE
• REPRODUCE
• REDUCE

Visit Unisa Open Portal (www.unisa.ac.za/oer)
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(No Transcript)
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History of Unisa Project

• The History of Unisa is a memory project which
  incorporates multi-media and both academic and
  popular writing components aimed at different
  audiences.

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Futures Thinking Project
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Our Organisational Architecture JourneyRoad
show 2012

• Illuminated changes in higher education,
  technology, OERs and society that impel
  organisational, curricular and individual change
• Student diversity and its implications
• Changing demands in the workplace implications
  for graduateness
• The state of the art in technological change at
  Unisa and anticipated trajectory

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The Goals of the Organisational Architecture

• Create an organization that provides ongoing
  value to students and stakeholders, and fulfills
  its social mandate.
• Align all aspects of Unisa technology, systems,
  processes and capacities.
• To mitigate complexity make transparent how the
  organisation is working, and where it is not
  reengineer the organisation in line with
  strategy.
• To develop agility to deal with new challenges.
• Optimize performance in all departments.

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Unisa at a Crossroads

• LOW ROAD
• Legacy low touch
• Print / manual
• Service delivery efficiency challenges
• Monolithic
• Slow and lumbering
• Low satisfaction
• HIGH ROAD
• Agility
• Tech rich
• Capability efficiency
• High touch
• High satisfaction
• High success, retention

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Key Challenges to Dept. Management

• Student diversity
• Learning mediation
• Assessment
• PQM viability
• Use of technology
• New staff capacity
• Digital literacy
• Graduateness for the digital age
• New degree structures
• International benchmarking and accreditation

Capacities for the Digital Age
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Making the Digital Leapinto the future

• What makes the shift to digital possible?
• Convergence of tech maturity, broadband access,
  maturity of software solutions,
• Infrastructure capabilities within Unisa
• A moment of possibility as the university
  contemplates the future.
• Years of commitment to be an ODeL university
  acceptance if not complete buy-in impetus of
  mission
• Rethinking graduateness
• Positive reception of OA discussion document and
  VCs roundtable on Business Model

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Using ICT in Learning Environments

• 1. Learning about ICT - exploring what can be
  done with ICT.
• 2. Learning with ICT - using ICT to supplement
  normal processes or resources.
• 3. Learning through ICT - using ICT to support
  new ways of teaching and learning.

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A new Academic Architecture

• PQM viability for online
• What is the work of the ODeL practitioner?
• New curriculum design - prototypes of online
  courses the niche for OERS.
• Implications for the teaching/learning/assessment
  nexus
• Reviewing the roles of the ODeL practitioner,
  academic, e-tutor, teaching assistant, DCLD.
• The special role of MOOCS

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The Role of Colleges

• The requirement to migrate to a new ops model
  will require-intensive professional development
  to ensure academics acquire new skills to
  function effectively in the new era.
• Accompanying a new matrix of systems and
  processes will be renewed staff capacity and a
  process of re-skilling via a change management
  strategy.

Colleges
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Professional Development

• Skills training required for a digital future
• Re-conceptualization of job functions
• Realignment of recruitment and selection criteria
• Equipping Staff and Students with Enabling
  Technologies

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The Next Five Years What African eLearning
hopes to achieve

• Increased mobility in education delivery
• Enhanced formal and informal learning through
  mobile technologies.
• Improved political will
• Reap economic benefit from ICT Investment in
  Education
• Increased access to ICT (Devices, Internet
  Connectivity and Content)
• Increased local content
• Improved learning and new pedagogies
• Increase in self motivated learning

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Reflections

• Technological change vs institutional and
  individual change
• Organisational culture and politics insecurity,
  anxiety and resistance
• Organisational transformation underway
  leveraging investments and advances in
  technology equipping students
• Graduateness in the digital era
• Capacity development on sufficient scale
•  Rethinking teaching, learning, assessment and
  administration in a paperless environment