Exploring Online Education
Implementing Approaches to Improve Wellbeing of First Year Students at the University of the Witwatersrand during COVID-19 Lockdown: From Access to Success
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Busisiwe Nkala Dlamini
This paper demonstrates how we used the ethics of care approach in identifying first year social work students’ basic needs insecurity and how we used the collaborative approach to successfully assist students with urgent needs. COVID-19 restrictions added to the students challenges due to lack human interaction and reliance on technology where frustration with trying to make sense of the learning management system was evident. We used a personal information form created for identifying underlying illness and document students’ next of kin. We expanded the form to focus on the following issues: residence during term, home address, financial assistance, access to a device (laptop) and data. We further followed up on students who did not submit the forms. Telephone contacts conducted during office hours and in the evening to establish their needs. Attending to students’ needs on case-by-case basis, drawing together a multidisciplinary team provided a fast resolution of issues and feedback was rapidly available. We conclude that attending to basic needs of the students at the beginning of the academic year supports their success and adjustment. As a caring profession we cannot distance ourselves from providing care, therefore our efforts demonstrate that it is beneficial for the students when move away from the idea that the lecturers are professionals and any personal issues that students get confronted with, should be referred to appropriate support services enhanced by technology.
Featured The Inclusion of Students with Special Needs in South African Institutions of Higher Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zintle Ntshongwana
Internationally, there are few students with special needs who proceed to higher education. This is due to the challenges and barriers that they face in basic education. Even when they get to higher education, they become confronted with a number of challenges and barriers to higher education inclusion. There is a dearth of literature on addressing the context-based problems that students with special needs face in higher educational institutions. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the challenges and prospects that students with special needs experience in South African higher education. In understanding the students’ experiences, the study focuses on students' academic and life experiences and how they perceive their inclusion in higher education. This is a literature review study. The findings are presented using thematic analysis. This study contributes to the lack of literature by showing that values behind inclusive higher education and formal efforts towards inclusive higher education interact as push and pull factors that hinder the inclusive transformations in higher education. This paper further provides recommendations for practice and policymaking, as well as future directions for research to fill existing gaps and strengthen the body of knowledge on the inclusion of students with special needs in South African higher education.
