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Antoinette Lombard, Robert. L. Martin

E-LITERACY FOR SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: THE CASE OF VUT1

Antoinette Lombard, Director of the e-skills unit at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), had initiated a skills development and employee engagement project for the Human Resource Department (HR) through offering an e-literacy (e-skills) course to the service workers of the University. Service workers included cleaning, gardening, maintenance and electrical workers. After a reasonably successful pilot was completed and she was considering considered how to move the project forward.

VUT was is one of 265 higher education institutions in South Africa and is situated in the Southern part of Gauteng Province. It employs a total of 1241 staff consisting of academic, non-academic and service workers. The Vaal University of technology (VUT) was is one of the 26 higher education institutions in South Africa, situated in the Southern part of the Gauteng province. VUT consists ed of 4 satellite campuses, with the main campus in Vanderbijlpark. The Gauteng province is the smallest of the 9 provinces and the economic hub of the country. The development of service workers or low level employees was normally not the focus of higher education institutions and therefore this category of employees normally lost out on development opportunities and were generally disengaged within the institution. In the case of VUT, management wanted to assist these workers to improve their skills, whilst at the same time there were several requests form from service workers for training opportunities.

Antoinette deemed the e-literacy course as the foundation for this development. and This course was regarded as the ability to apply e-literacy knowledge to real life challenges for self-development and upliftment. The course was introduced to the services workers over a period of 6 months in a facilitated environment. The results showed that most of the participants who failed to meet the 60% criteria, struggled with the more advanced topics in the course like mail merge.

The decision Antoinette faced was on how to improve the success of the course, but without compromising its the relevance and focus. of the course. The reason for this was twofold: to keep the participants motivated to complete the course and to improve the e-literacy level, and in the long run the e-astuteness of the participants. The second decision was whether the e-literacy program was still suitable for skills development in order to improve employer engagement with the use of technology.

Option one was to change the level of course difficulty by removing the higher level and more difficult topics, without watering down the focus and purpose of the course. Option two was to change the facilitation mode from total facilitated environment to a more blended environment. Option three was adding additional exercises with more application type questions to instill e-social and e-astuteness 1 Copyright © 2015, A Lombard, RL Martin. This case was prepared for the purpose of class discussion, and not to illustrate the effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Names and some information have been disguised. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this case for non-commercial purposes, in both printed and electronic formats. This template is based on a 2012 template originally developed for the Journal of IT Education: Discussion Cases.

Editor: [Editor’s Name]

A Lombard, RL Martin

principles. This could be accomplished by adding additional hours to the course and developing new course notes.

Overview of South AfricaThe Southernmost tip of Africa was is home to a nation on the rise - a place where a warm-spirited and inventive people, great natural wealth and breath-taking landscapes come together to create fresh opportunities and new ways of doing things. This was is South Africa in the 21st century: modern, vibrant and productive, rooted in Africa - and in close touch with the world at large. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, a new set of opportunities and challenges to transform society arose has arisen and, taking into account the local SA conditions and the international best practice, South Africa has launched a range of strategic initiatives to accelerate development and growth that would benefit the entire population and defeat poverty and the legacy of under-development. The National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030 was is used as the principal guiding document for the South African government to govern the country. The NDP aims ed to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. According to the plan, South Africa could have realised these goals by drawing on the energies of its people, growing an inclusive economy, building capabilities, enhancing the capacity of the state, and promoting leadership and partnerships throughout society. The training of South African citizens, in every format, contributes to the goals of this plan and the role of VUT is to contribute to this training in order to reach the goals.

The Vaal University of technology (VUT) was is one of the 26 higher education institutions in South Africa, situated in the Southern part of the Gauteng province. VUT consists ed of 4 satellite campuses, with the main campus in Vanderbijlpark. The Gauteng province is the smallest of the 9 provinces and the economic hub of the country. VUT employs a total of 1241 staff consisting of academic, non-academic and service workers. The development of service workers or low level employees was normally not the focus of higher education institutions and therefor this category of employees normally lost out on development opportunities and were generally disengaged within the institution due to their inability to communicate through the use technology.

ProvincesSouth Africa has nine provinces, each with its own legislature, premier and executive council – and distinctive landscape, population, economy and climate. These provinces are Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West and Western Cape.

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People and size (area) per provinceThe Republic of South Africa has a population of around 55 million people with the biggest largest population in Gauteng. Although it is the smallest in size and has the smallest number of people, in the Northern Cape is the biggest province. Table 1 below reflects the percentage (%) of national land area (size), the population in percentage (%) and population numbers for the different provinces in South Africa.

Province % of National land area

Population in %

Population in numbers (Million)

Eastern Cape 13.8 12.7 6.56Free State 10.6 5.3 2.74Gauteng 1.4 23.7 12.27KwaZulu-Natal 7.7 19.8 10.27Limpopo 10.3 10.4 5.4Mpumalanga 6.3 708 4.04Northern Cape 30.5 2.2 1.15North West 8.7 6.8 3.5Western Cape 10.6 11.2 5.82

Table 1

LanguageSouth Africa has 11 official languages. Although English was is widely accepted as the business language in South Africa, it was only the 3rd most spoken language in the country. According to census data from 2011, Zulu is the most widely spoken language in the country with 11.6 million speakers, followed by Xhosa with 8.15 million speakers, and Afrikaans, with 6.85 million speakers. English is some distance away with 4.9 million speakers.

Education system and skillsAccording to the Bill of Rights of South Africa's Constitution, all South Africans have the right to a basic education, including adult basic education and access to further education. The state has an obligation, through reasonable measures, to progressively make the education available and accessible. The Skills Development Act governs the roll out of skills development and training in SA. This act places the responsibility on employers to develop employees.

(http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/legislation/acts/skills-development-act/amendments/skilldevact.pdf)

Overview of the e-skills project in South AfricaBackground of the e-skills project in South AfricaThe e-skills project started in 2010 for the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), when the DVC at the time, Prof Alwyn Louw, attended the first e-skills summit held in Cape Town, South Africa. It was the beginning of an exciting journey with government in e-skilling the nation. The e-skills project was part of

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one of the South African Government departments called Department of Communication (DOC) and the institute to run with the project within the DOC was called the e-Skills Institute (eSI). A document, called the National e-Skills Plan of Action (NeSPA) was a result of this summit and was it had been reviewed in 2012/ 2013 again.

The NeSPA 2013 provided the model, identified a planned approach, and called for the emergence of a national entity that commands the support, resources and respect of all government departments, state-owned enterprises, business, education, civil society and organized labour. The approach, outlined in the NeSPA document, has been informed by in-depth investigation of approaches used in Mexico, Cuba, the United States, Kenya, Rwanda, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Northern and Eastern Europe. NeSPA served as the framework for the roll out of the e-skills project in South Africa.

Important definition applicable to the E-skills program in South Arica were the following:

iNeSI “An Institute to be established in terms of the iNeSI Act in line with the Higher Education Act, 1997 (Act No. 101 of 1997 as amended) and National Qualifications Framework Act, 2008 (Act No. 67 of 2008) to address the e-Skills demands and needs in the country and to ensure that education and training respond to the demands and needs for e-Skills in the country.

E-skills: An e-skill is more than knowing the basics of how to use a computer (computer literacy). While it was essential to be computer literate, the important question is: what could you do with tour your skill? An e-skill meant means being able to use technology to actually do something – to actively took take part in the world and move ahead.

E-Literacy: the ability of individuals to use digital tools and facilities to perform tasks, to solve problems, to communicate, to manage information, to collaborate, to create and share content and to build knowledge in all areas of everyday life and for work. E-literacy in the context of the project is defined as basic computer of IT literacy, internet & email literacy and mobile literacy. A citizen who is e-literate will have the ability to take online courses and qualify for higher positions within the work environment or improve productivity at work.

E-Astuteness: to develop an e-competent individual by giving them him/her appropriate ICT-related knowledge & skills and training train them to develop a competent attitude and knowledge to use and to adapt to the rapidly changing new forms of ICT devices and associated software” (Mitrovic et al, 2013). E-literacy is the basic skill needed to become e-astute.

E-Social astuteness: denotes a smart way of applying acquired e-skills and e-astuteness for everyday socio-economic development and better life opportunities for local benefit in a socio-economic dynamic increasingly impacted by new forms of ICT (Mitrovic et al, 2013).

The South African Government recognized that it was not possible to deal with the inequality and poverty of the past or to build an inclusive economy and a capable and developmental state without appropriation of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across the full socio-economic spectrum. It was the accepted that by developing and enhancing e-skills (digital skills) amongst the citizens of the country they would be able to participate more equitably in a societal environment

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increasingly dominated by ICT. This is particularly relevant to previous disadvantaged groups including unemployed youth, elderly, woman women and people with disabilities. However a more coordinated approach was needed in South Africa and thus the national entity referred to in the NeSPA document, was called iNeSI (Ikamva National E-skills institute). By the time of this discussion case the act, bill and legality around the iNeSI was still in progress.

Since 2010 numerous changes took have taken place in the government structures of South Africa and the eSI was moved to a different government department called Department of Telecommunication and Postal Services (DTPS) and moved in under the auspice of NEMISA for the time being until iNeSI was established.

The ESI, collaborated with various universities across South Africa, to try and reach out to as many communities in all the provinces. VUT, situated in the Southern Gauteng Province, was one of the universities the ESI partnered with in 2010 as part of the project. The other universities were University of Western Cape (UWC – Western Cape Province), Durban University of Technology (DUT – Kwazulu Natal Province), Walter Sisulu University (WSU – Eastern Cape Province) and University of Pretoria (UP – Gauteng Province). Each of the Universities was assigned a thematic area as reflected in table 2.

National e-Skills Thematic Area Current Hosting university ProvinceE-government /governance Durban University of Technology (DUT0 Kwazulu-NatalCreative New Media Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Gautenge-Inclusion and social innovation University of the Western Cape Western CapeKnowledge-based economy and e-literacy

Val University of Technology (VUT) Southern Gauteng & Northern Cape

ICT for rural development including production and distribution

Walter Sisulu University (WSU) Eastern Cape

Connected Health University of Limpopo LimpopoTourism and agriculture North West University North West

Table 2

VUT had the thematic area of “The Knowledge Economy & E-social astuteness (E-literacy)”. This was surely a mouth full, but what it meant in essence was that the VUT CoLab was would be responsible for the e-literacy training of 10 million ordinary citizens by 2030 in order for them to take part in the knowledge-economy of SA. Although the term e-literacy was very loosely defined at the beginning, it was the VUT CoLab’s responsibility to define e-literacy for national understanding. This was done and concluded that e-literacy was the ability of individuals to use digital tools and facilities to perform tasks, to solve problems, to communicate, to manage information, to collaborate, to create and share content and to build knowledge in all areas of everyday life and for work. E-literacy in the context of the project was defined as basic computer skills, internet & email literacy and mobile literacy.

But the question remained: did everybody really needed e-skills? When people thought of digital skills (e-skills), they often thought of high-level digital skills like programming. Digital skills played a much bigger role in terms of being employment ready with skills needed by the job market. Being able to use ICTs or digital technology had become a basic requirement in the job market. This was evident by the increasing use and reliance on how many people used technology, in whatever form, on a daily basis.

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Emailing, typing letters, doing research, searching for online journals through library websites, registering for conferences or just looking for a nice Sunday lunch recipe - no-one could imagine their lives without technology. But the reality was that millions of people in South Africa did not have those basic skills that most of us took for granted. Digital skills had also become essential as a basic life skills. In a world increasingly dominated by technology, the ability to use ICT had become fundamental to everyday life. The VUT CoLab, in partnership with NEMISA/INeSI,was part of the solution to ensure that South Africans had the necessary e-skills starting with basic e-literacy.

Some examples of where the ordinary citizen would needs these skills were the following:

- Within the basic education schooling system in South Africa, all grade 1 and 8 learners had to be registered online by the parents in order to gain access to schools in their own townships/suburbs. Very few of the parents in the rural and deep-rural areas possessed these skills to register their children – thus a need for e-literacy training.

- The Department of Home Affairs introduced a new online system to apply for an identification document (ID) in South Africa. This document uniquely identified every citizen and was a very important document to have. Again very few people in the rural and deep rural areas have the necessary skills to apply online for these document.

The target for this e-skills (e-literacy) program was in short everyone out on the street who were not technology savvy. In South Africa “everyone” referred to people in urban, peri-urban, rural and even deep rural communities. The world of technology operated at every level and was integral to everyday life. There were very few places where technology and therefore e-Skills (being able to use this technology effectively) were not important. Within the South African e-skills framework, these e-skills users were classified into different categories including non e-literate communities (people who were not savvy with technology), e-Users, e-Practitioners, e-Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Government and the general public. Table 3 indicates the definition, as defined by South Africa:

Category of users Description in South African ContextNon e-literate communities (people who are not savvy with technology)

These people may know very little or nothing about technology. They need e-skills to help with employment and to improve their everyday life lives This is particularly important for sections of the population that have been marginalised. This These includes the elderly, the unemployed, unskilled youth, and women. They need to be included in the economy.

e-Users These are people that need e-skills to do their jobs. (This doesn’t mean people who are responsible for ICT, like the technicians who look after computers at the workplace.)

e-Practitioners These are people whose job it is to work with ICT, such as developing solutions. There are hundreds of jobs that fall into this category. These include programmers, mobile app developers, website developers and database administrators.

e-Leaders These are people who use technology to develop their organisations. E-leaders are using ICT as a tool and this group includes CEOs and CIO s. (The CIO, or Chief Information Officer, looks at the technology needs for the business.)

Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs are an important part of our economy and key to making it grow. It’s essential they have the e-skills needed to run their businesses

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successfully, whether these are very small businesses or larger Entrepreneurs. They need to know how to use budgeting programmes, stock control programmes, how to market online, how to use the internet to including social media to promote products, etc.

Government The South African government is on a drive to have more efficient government services. This can be done using ICT. For example, a lot of government services can be provided through the internet. It’s essential that people who work in government have the e-skills for effective service delivery.

The public South Africans need to know more about what technology can do for them, even if they don’t have e-skills or access to technology and the internet at the moment. This skills training initiative (e-skills training) is in preparation for the broadband rollout. When the infrastructure is ready, people need e-skills to use broadband effectively: they need to know how to use the internet, how to send emails, how to use application programs, how to access government applications to apply for ID documents, register children in school, etc. (Broadband means fast, always-on access to the internet.). Although the South African Broadband roll out had been very slow up to 2016, a lot more emphasis and budget will go to this rill-out in 2017 and the visions is to have broadband available throughout South Africa by 2030.

Table 3Another reason for the lack of these skills was the shortage of the necessary broadband infrastructure in the country and therefore the lack of opportunities to learn and have access to technology as basic as internet and email. Although the e-skills project will not establish the infrastructure, it will contribute to the skills development of its human capital, so that when the infrastructure becomes available, the skills would be there.

THE VAAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGYThe Vaal University of Technology (VUT), as described before, is one of the 26 higher education institutions in South Africa, situated in the Southern part of the Gauteng province and consists of 4 satellite campuses. A total of 1241 staff consisting of academics, administration and service worker staff was employed by VUT and all employed between Peromones (job) levels 1 and 18, of which 1 is the highest and 18 the lowest. Most admin and academic staff were appointed on levels 5-12 and service workers were appointed mostly on levels 13-18. VUT is in the process of rolling out a new performance management system and each employee had has the responsibility to prepare personal development plans (PDPs) in conjunction with their performance level agreements. If any employee wanted wants to go on training, it must have aligned to their PDP’s and their own growth within the department and personally. For academic and administrative employees there were are numerous opportunities for skills development in terms of their job function and role within the university. For example IT Academics could go on an Oracle Course for trainers in order to teach Oracle better to 3 rd year learners or a finance worker could attend a course on new tax regulations. For internal training, a Centre for Academic Development (CAD) was established for academics.

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The development of service workers or low level employees, however were was not catered for by CAD and was normally not the focus of higher education institutions and thus very little opportunities for skills development. One such skill that got left behind was the e-literacy skills of these workers and this contributed further to an already disengaged group of employees due to the e-communication strategy of the University. Although e-literacy is not a direct requirement for the service workers within their job environment, it was seen as an opportunity to uplift their skills for self-improvement and allowing these employees to partake in the e-communication strategy of the university. One example of how this related to the service workers is was the following: VUT moved towards an electronic pay slip system and due to the lack of skills of the service workers, they were not able to see their pay slips online, and this resulted in salary slips being printed at the end of every month to hand over to the service workers. The e-literacy course would enable these workers to access their pay slips online, apply for leave online, engage with management and HR via email, etc.

The VUT CoLabFor the VUT CoLab the main purpose of the e-skills project is to address poverty, inequality and unemployment in the South African society. The CoLab operates from the assumption that the formal sector, higher education, corporate world and employed sector have had opportunities and were are generally accessible / affordable. Therefore the CoLab focus was to “mobilize the broader population including unemployed, low income levels and broad community structures (focused on woman and disabled) into the socio-economic mainstream to make them competitive, employable, entrepreneurial and self-sustaining by supporting business and community development through general programs and support functions”.

The CoLab operates though establishing partnerships with existing centres all over Southern Gauteng and the Northern Cape. Collaboration and good relationships were are crucial for the success of this partnership. The basic requirements needed for a centre to become part a CoLab training partner, were are to have at least a working computer laboratory, where possible internet connection, it must have been accessible to the community and the centre manager / facilitator has had to be in good standing with the community leaders and the community at large. This was is part of the development process of local talent within the different communities.

The CoLab has various community centres in Southern Gauteng and the Northern Cape as shown in EXHIBIT 1. There is also a centre at the Main Campus in Vanderbijlpark where the training of the VUT employees took take place.

THE CASE FOR VUT

Although the focus of the CoLab is more on the unemployed youth and the communities at large. VUT felt that they also had to contribute to the development of their own staff. The service workers of VUT, involved in this training, formed part of the non-literate community and was therefore seen as the ideal group for e-literacy training.

Antoinette, Director of the e-skills unit at the University, was approached by HR to see whether the e-literacy course for service workers was an option to improve engagement and social upliftment.

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Antoinette deemed the e-literacy course as the foundation for development and engagement of these service level employees to enhance their e-social astuteness, which was regarded as the ability to apply e-literacy knowledge to real life challenges for self-development and upliftment. The e-skills unit was focusing on basic e-literacy for all staff and learners, while the CAD was more focusing on the development of skills in relation to the e-learning platform (Blackboard) and not catering for basic entry-level skills. Therefore, these two units complemented each other in terms of training of VUT staff in all skills required.

The e-literacy course consisted of basic computer skills, internet & email and mobile as discussed earlier. The e-literacy course was introduced to the 1st group of 50 service workers in 2015 over a period of 6 months in a facilitated environment. There was no pre-test given to the participants, only a questionnaire asking question regarding their previous experience in the use of technology and access to technology. They also went through a short interview to establish basic English skills. During the first class an introduction and proper orientation was given on how to switch on a computer, how to work with a mouse and how to login into the e-literacy program online. During the duration of the course, learners would work thought through the online material, with a facilitator available and explaining concepts and application when and where needed. At the end of the topic, the facilitator would revise the content and give practical exercises to assist the learners in practicing their skills in real life applications.

Of the 50 participants, 6 cancelled the course due to various reasons, 1 participant died in a tragic accident and 4 more dropped out. Of the 39 remaining participants 6 (13%) passed all the modules on the first exam, 8 (20.5%) passed at least three of the six modules on the first exam. After several more attempts the pass rate improved and at least 92% received a certificate for passing at least two modules successfully with a result of more than 60%. The main concern regarding the results, were was the fact that too few participants actually passed all 6 the modules with the 60% pass rate required and they after evaluation of the results and individual answers to questions in the assessment, it was clear that most of the participants struggled with the more advanced topics like mail merge and advance formulas in Excel. Due to the fact that the content of the program was not tailor made for this group of participants, they had to complete the whole program. These more advanced topics were part of the assessment and caused a number of the participants not to pass. The learners who did not qualify for a certificate of competence, did received a certificate of attendance.

The training of these service workers was done as part of the CoLab’s pilot to test the content, the methodology of teaching and the success of the assessment system.

E-literacy Training ProgramMore about the software we used to do the e-literacy training. The eSkills4All program was selected as the program of choice for e-literacy training. It was a locally developed product that was geared to the South African market in the following ways:

• Localized for the South African environment. All the content was developed keeping the culture, context and South African environment in mind. Only concepts known to South Africans were used for example no foreign towns or city names, like New York or London, but only cities and towns known to the South African population like Johannesburg and Soweto. Games were linked to soccer, as this is a well-known sport in South Africa.

• Basic requirements of reading and writing in English. According to recent research, 58% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning, while 29% are completely illiterate[1]. This

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confirms research findings gathered by NEEDU in 2013 which show that of the 1,772 rural Grade 5 learners, 41% read so slowly that they were considered non-readers in English, while 11% could not read a single English word from the passage used to assess their reading fluency. While the sample of learners assessed in the NEEDU research may not have been fully reflective of all of South Africa’s schools, it demonstrates a disturbingly high number of children who are unable to read in their fifth year of schooling. This was also reflected in the literacy levels of adults in the country. This e-ESkills4All program was developed to address these shortages, at a level for 2nd and 3rd English language speakers

• Assessments were linked to SAQA credits (South African Qualification Authority) which meant that participants, if they wish to do so, can complete a full End-User computing course and get an accredited certificate from SAQA. The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) is a statutory body, regulated in terms of the National Qualifications Framework Act No. 67 of 2008. It is made up of 29 members appointed by the Minister of Education in consultation with the Minister of Labour. SAQA is mandated by legislation to oversee the development and implementation of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The NQF is a framework, i.e. it sets the boundaries, principle and guidelines, which provide a vision, a philosophical base and an organizational structure, for the construction of a qualifications system. Detailed development and implementation is carried out within these boundaries. All education and training in South Africa fits within this framework.

• Available online / off-line (local): Using a complete online solution for e-literacy will be the ideal, but due to the current skill level of citizens, the only viable approach was a blended approach. Blended learning was a teaching methodology, whether formal or informal, that combines traditional classroom methods with online digital media. It requires both the learner and a teacher or facilitator to be present in the classroom.

• Accredited by VUT as a non-formal Short Learning Programme. The e-literacy programme went through a process in order to be registered as a non-formal Short Learning Program at VUT. It was properly evaluated by various stakeholders and finally approved. This meant that every learner who completed the courses and passed all modules with 60% would receive an official VUT Short Learning Certificate. This was a very good motivator for participants to enroll and complete the course and in a number of cases, for the first time allowed some of the participants to receive an official University certificate.

The course consisted of the following modules:

Introduction to computers Internet & Email Word-processing Spreadsheets Presentation software.

Table 4 indicates the different topics per modules and the related NQF level of the topic. It also indicates the SAQA unit standard number and credits linked to the unit standard, for those learners who wished to complete a full qualification.

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ModuleUnit Standard & Topics Covered le

SAQA NQF Unit Standard Number

NQF Level

Credits

Introduction to Computers

Operating a Computer 116932 1 3Managing Files and Folders 117867 1 3Using Computer Functions 258883 1 4Concepts and Uses of ICT 117925 2 3

Internet & E-mail Managing Email 116935 2 2Using an Email Application 116945 2 2Introduction to the internet and web-browsers

116931 2 4

Microsoft Word Document Creation 116938 1 4Formatting Documents 117924 2 5Create Merged Documents 116942 3 3Using Tables and Columns 119078 3 5

Microsoft Excel Working with Spreadsheets 116937 2 4Editing and Formatting Spreadsheets

116940 3 6

Enhancing Spreadsheets with Objects

116943 4 3

Microsoft PowerPoint

Creating a Presentations 116933 1 3Formatting a Presentation 117923 2 5Enhancing a Presentation 116930 3 5

Total 17 64

Table 4The pedagogy of “Teach, Show, Do” was used throughout the program and allowed the learner to practice concepts in the actual learning program. ESkills4All has a proven track record of educating learners from a previously disadvantaged background and learners struggling with language. The methodology of the program also allowed learners to repeat lessons when they were not sure about concepts, certain skills or application of the skills. It also allowed the fast learners to move forward quickly without getting bored or frustrated with the slower learners.

The assessment was a fully automated, online assessment system and was conducted at the end of the training course. This assessment consisted of 6 assessments, one for each of the learning modules as mentioned above. Learners had 45 to 60 minutes to complete the assessment depending on the module. For example, the Introduction to Computer was a shorter assessment than Microsoft Word. The assessment included both theoretical and application questions.

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THE DECISIONIt was realized, after engagement with HR, the facilitator, participants, the developer of the software and analyzing the final results, that the level of the course might be too high for the participants of this case. This was mainly due to the fact that some of the topics in the courseware were on NQF level 4 (see table above. In South Africa NQF level 4 was is equal to grade 12 / matric level, which was is the last/highest level in high school for learners. Learners needed to pass their grade 12 / matric, with the applicable marks, in order to enroll for studies at a tertiary education institution in the country. It was not expected of the service workers or any participant in the e-literacy course, to have a matric, and therefore the participants struggled with these level 4 topics in the course.

The decision Antoinette faced was, was on how to improve the success of the course on the first attempt. Keeping the relevance and focus of the course intact was important during the decision. By taking away some of the higher level topics, could have had a negative impact on the e-literacy expected outcomes. Some of these higher level skills might have helped the participants to find better jobs. On the other hand, if the higher levels were not removed. it They had a negative influence on the motivation for the participants to complete the course because they kept on failing these more difficult modules.

Because Antoinette remained concerned about the real impact of the course, she had to consider various options.

Option one was to change the level of the course difficulty by removing the higher, more difficult levels (NQF Level 3 and 4), without watering down the focus of the course. Although this seemed to be the easiest option, it was also not a fair option because certain skills would not be dealt with and participants might have needed them in order to find better jobs. It would also have had an impact on the learners who wished to complete the full qualification with regards to the NQF levels and the SAQA Unit standards.

The second option was to change the facilitation mode from total facilitated to a more blended environment. The mode of contact during the first group’s training was mostly facilitator led, where the facilitator would discuss a certain topic for the day and then allowed the learners to go through the content on the e-skills4all software. After the learners completed the online part of the class, the facilitator would go back, do revision and allow the learners to complete exercises to instill the knowledge through application question. For example, once the Word module was completed, the learners were asked to type a CV, integrating all the concepts learnt in class. The concern with the online part of the class was the fact that the facilitator went step by step through the program with the learners instead of leaving them to work on their own, Changing the class format to a more blended environment where the facilitator would allow the learners to work through the content by themselves with assistance as and when needed, then discuss the more difficult topics in more detail and show examples, before allowing the class to complete practical exercises.

The third and last option was adding additional exercises with more application type questions to instill e-social -astuteness principles, without taking the higher level topics away. This would however results in the course being extended for an additional week or two depending on the capabilities of the learners. This will would have a negative influence on the service worker’s work environment, since they will would have to be off from work for longer period.

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EXHIBIT 1: Maps of CoLab centres Southern Gauteng centres

Northern Cape Centres

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A Lombard, RL Martin

References:

References[1] Spaull, N. (2016a). Learning to Read and Reading to Learn. Policy Brief. Research on Socioeconomic Policy (RESEP). (Online). Available: www.resep.sun.ac.za

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