Students still need classroom set up: Wits professor

University of Witwatersrand professor Barry Dwolatzky has welcomed the idea of the use of online university tuition in South Africa but warned that students still need a classroom environment to hone their social skills.

Last week‚ Wits graduate‚ Ntokozo Mahlangu‚ proposed to the Fees Commission that the South African government should consider online university education in its effort to bring access to students from impoverished areas.

Online university education is seen as less expensive in a country like South Africa as students do not have to deal with hurdles such as accommodation‚ transport and other academic costs associated with tertiary education.

“There are certain things you can do very well using that type of technology but there is still very much a need to have face-to-face learning and teaching. If you take my field‚ computer science and software engineering‚ learning how to program‚ you can definitely do online….What can’t be done is to learn about social interactions. A lot of work‚ especially stuff that happens in a university classroom is not about content but how you work and learn from other people‚” said Dwolatzky‚ head of the Information Engineering Research Programme at Wits.

The Fees Commission was established by President Jacob Zuma to look into the feasibility of South Africa providing free education at tertiary institutions following the FeesMustFall campaign.

The City of Joburg has already officially launched the Massive Open Online Varsity (MOOV) e-learning programme at the Westbury Library and Recreation Centre in March 2016.

MOOV is a R25-million online further education programme under Vulindlel’eJozi‚ which is designed for creating access to smart education to eliminate factors such as distance and cost associated with obtaining an education – particularly for the youth.

MOOV courses are available through globally renowned business schools and universities‚ as well as other platforms‚ including the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania‚ University of Adelaide‚ Microsoft Academy and Wix Web.

Up to 4 555 people have registered for the MOOV in selected public libraries that include Alex‚ Emndeni‚ Westbury‚ Jabavu‚ Inner City‚ Sandton and Orange Farm.

But Dwolatzky warned that screening the online university would be crucial for South Africa.

“There lies a big challenge. Through formal university accreditation processes in South Africa we know which universities that are credible and those that are not…If we get a University of Honolulu coming here‚ it is so hard to find a yardstick to measure them by‚” he said.