The education sector, among others, was severely affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Because mathematics has always been singled out as a subject that needs more verbal communication and interaction, rapid adjustments had to be made by mathematics lecturers in higher education institutions to try and facilitate normal…

Access to higher education has been one of the critical areas of concern in South Africa, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the systemic cleavages into sharp relief, with 'access' and subsequent 'success' emerging as an important variable. Availability of digital facilities…

Universities today are facing challenges regarding students' persistence and success especially among first year students who converge from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds and anticipate a smooth academic and social adjustment to the university setting. However, contextual and individual factors play important role in the academic…

Background: The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study of 2016 lays claim to the need for critical thinking to be developed since, in the South African context, 78% of learners could not even retrieve explicitly stated information (lower-order thinking) from texts, as opposed to 4% in the rest of the world. Critical, higher-order…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about restrictions on physical interactions, which in many ways changed how we live and work. Due to these restrictions, writing centres at universities and other educational institutions around the world had to transition from traditional ways of supporting students to online or remote methods. To save the academic…

The purpose of this study was to compile research on the advantages and challenges of using digital technology in clinical education for undergraduate nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employed an integrative literature review with the use of the five steps as per Cooper's framework. Data were collected from four electronic…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing advances were made by higher education institutions (HEIs) to support remote online teaching and learning for student success and access, which are increasing areas of research. The major objective of this paper is to address the shift to remote teaching and learning practices that COVID precipitated in higher…

Education institutions globally, are increasingly driven to integrate innovative technologies in teaching spaces. While many studies have been conducted on e-learning, blended learning and m-learning, only a few studies have concentrated on the STEM preservice teachers' e-readiness for using online multimodal teaching methods in developing…

The purpose of the qualitative study on which this article is based was to explore the experiences of students with visual impairments registered at an Open Distance and e-Learning University in South Africa, through a phenomenological research design. Literature was reviewed on student support in distance education and concepts from the critical…

Purpose: The study explored whether an asynchronous short online course in mental health well-being and resilience for healthcare workers (HCWs) showed improved self-reported results among participants during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive cross-sectional study evaluated the course outcomes…

The outbreak of COVID-19 and the consequent lockdown took the world by surprise, forcing the trimming of the school curriculum and institutions of higher learning to urgently adopt online platforms to continue teaching and learning. This article is a case study that explores the use of a social media platform, WhatsApp, to improve peer learning…

Open distance e-learning (ODeL) is an essential form of e-learning for students in South Africa. It allows expanded access to higher education for students from rural or socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. One of the key features of ODeL is that students can complete coursework modules virtually, without the need to step onto a physical…

Distance education celebrates its humanitarian mission of providing opportunities for disadvantaged and marginalized individuals who do not have access to traditional campus-based higher education. Large enrolments of students necessitate an industrialized approach in planning, design, and delivery informed by a normative assumption of ableism. In…

A switch to emergency remote teaching, learning, and assessment (TLA) has become necessary as a result of the social distancing brought about by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were forced to switch from face-to-face to online teaching and learning to ensure successful completion of the academic year as well as…

The history, development, products, and impact of image-making are well-represented in literature. The literature looks extensively at the technological developments and advancements in the field and how photography has contributed to our understanding of historical, political and social tensions. However, the training and preparation of…