Remote teaching updates for undergraduate students

30 April 2020 | DVC A/Prof Lis Lange
 

Dear undergraduate students

I hope you and your families are well. The orientation week held to help students adapt to the new learning environment started on Monday, 20 April, and it has been largely successful. This week we started the formal academic programme. I am writing to give you an update of what is happening on various fronts. Let’s start with the greatest source of anxiety. As you know, the distribution of loan laptops, the finalisation of arrangements with South African cellular network providers to zero-rate data on certain websites, and 30 GB data top-ups from the University of Cape Town (UCT) took longer than we expected.

Where is my laptop?

I have received many anxious emails from students who are worried that they have not received their laptops yet. Please don’t panic – we are still distributing them. Here is an update from UCT’s Information and Communication Technology Services (ICTS):

“We are providing laptops on loan to eligible students on the basis of their responses to the student survey that was circulated at the beginning of April 2020. This process was necessary to ensure that as many students as possible would be able to participate in online learning when Term 2 began. It was partly funded by a R5 million donation from the Motsepe Foundation to the UCT COVID-19 emergency fund.

“A total of 2 327 students who completed the survey on access have been offered loan machines so far. Of these, 1 483 students accepted the offer under UCT’s terms and conditions for the loan and provided updated delivery addresses. (The terms include adding the cost of the laptop to the student’s fee account, which is reversed on return of the machine in good order.) A total of 492 students declined the offer of a loan laptop, while 352 students have not responded.

“Delivery of the loan laptops began on 22 April and is expected to be completed by 8 May at the latest.”


Data bundles

Deals to provide data bundles to all students for one month have been signed with the four major South African cellular network providers: Cell C, MTN, Telkom and Vodacom. These deals will be renewed on a monthly basis. The renewal date of each bundle will depend on the initial provision date.

All bundles consist of 20 GB “night-time” data along with “anytime” data totalling either 10 GB (for Cell C, MTN and Vodacom users) or 20 GB (for Telkom users). All of these bundles became active between 21 and 28 April.”

UCT has made an “opt out” option available to allow students who already have access to data to not only assist another student, but also to help the university to assess the need across the institution so we can plan more effectively for possible future needs.


Zero-rated websites

The four major South African cellular network providers (Cell C, MTN, Telkom and Vodacom) have agreed to zero-rate certain important UCT sites and systems for their respective users, which means that they will not consume data from their data bundles. The list of zero-rated sites is different for each service provider. ICTS provides the full list of zero-rated sites offered by each cellular network provider, as well as the structure of data bundles available to students.


What happens if I am late for my course?

One of the anxieties you mentioned is that you are “late” to start your courses. Although I absolutely understand the feeling, technically speaking you are not late. This is because the offerings are asynchronous – the pre-recorded lectures and study materials are there in Vula for you to access when you are ready. You will not miss anything. All course conveners know that under these circumstances they have to be flexible in terms of submissions of work, continual assessment, etc. So, again, do not worry. Your situation will be taken into account for deadlines as far as possible.

Once you have your computer and data and you are ready to go, make sure you contact your lecturer or course convener to indicate that you have joined in, to ask for advice and to formally request an extension to submit your work, if you need one.


What if I cannot connect to UCT and my course Vula sites?

We are looking into the delivery of printed materials and USB drives for those students who cannot access the internet. This requires quite complex organisation. We will keep you posted on this. We are targeting 11 May to start the distribution of printed materials, based on the information we are gathering about your participation online.


Deadlines to drop courses

As you would have heard, we have moved the deadline to make changes in your curriculum (dropping of courses) from 8 May to 29 May. At the moment, this only means that the courses you drop will not be listed in your transcript as incomplete. We are studying the financial implications of dropping courses for the students and the university. We will keep you informed of these developments.


Other support to learn remotely

The next three weeks will be very important in terms of assessing how remote teaching is working, identifying problems you are facing and seeing how best we can solve them. There are still two important elements in our support to you that we are discussing and finalising.

If your Faculty has provided information on who to contact when you need help, make sure that you do that. In addition, the UCT Call Centre and Referral System (CARES) is a new support tool being developed by the Academic Advising Project, at the Centre for Higher Education Development, to provide students with a central connection to UCT’s greater support network. We recognise that it is not always easy to know where to go for the help you need. So, if you are not sure about where to get help, or just need general information, you can direct your query to uctcares@uct.ac.za. From here student queries will either be responded to or referred to the relevant department or person for follow-up. We will soon be launching an SMS query line as well.


How are we doing?

The past few weeks have been very difficult and have caused anxiety for all of us. You may be at home and, at times, feel isolated, maybe without data or a laptop, or juggling family demands and responsibilities. Your teachers are planning and preparing for you (while being parents and teachers of their own children), trying things online – often for the first time. But now we are mostly on our way.

All the graphs of participation in Vula (based on this week) are showing good student presence in most faculties. We know who is not participating and, in most cases, why not because we have been able to follow up. We are doing as much as possible to respond to the specific problems you raise.

Last week I had a very useful engagement with your faculty councils, which helped me gather your concerns and hopefully respond to most of them.

So, this is all for now. Thank you to all of you for your engagement, your patience and your resilience. We will get through all of this together.

Until the next message, take care of yourselves.

Warm regards

Associate Professor Lis Lange
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching & Learning


Updates will be posted on UCT’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 feature page on the UCT News website.


Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Please view the republishing articles page for more information.


Coronavirus Disease 2019 updates

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that caused President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a national disaster in South Africa on 15 March 2020 and to implement a national lockdown from 26 March.

UCT is taking the threat of infection in our university community extremely seriously, and this page will be updated regularly with the latest COVID-19 information. Please note that the information on this page is subject to change depending on current lockdown regulations.

Frequently asked questions

 

Daily updates


Friday, 5 February 14:20, 5 February 2021
Monday, 4 January 16:50, 4 January 2021
Friday, 18 December 11:30, 18 December 2020
Thursday, 19 November 09:30, 19 November 2020
Friday, 13 November 12:40, 13 November 2020
Friday, 16 October 10:05, 16 October 2020
Wednesday, 14 October 12:50, 14 October 2020
Tuesday, 22 September 14:10, 22 September 2020
Friday, 11 September 10:05, 11 September 2020
Monday, 31 August 12:20, 31 August 2020
Wednesday, 12 August 10:20, 12 August 2020
Friday, 7 August 11:24, 7 August 2020
Thursday, 6 August 18:26, 6 August 2020
Monday, 27 July 14:00, 27 July 2020
Wednesday, 15 July 09:30, 15 July 2020
Monday, 13 July 14:25, 13 July 2020
Monday, 6 July 16:20, 6 July 2020
Thursday, 25 June 10:15, 25 June 2020
Tuesday, 23 June 12:30, 23 June 2020
Thursday, 18 June 17:35, 18 June 2020
Wednesday, 17 June 10:45, 17 June 2020
Tuesday, 2 June 12:20, 2 June 2020
Friday, 29 May 09:25, 29 May 2020
Monday, 25 May 14:00, 25 May 2020
Thursday, 21 May 12:00, 21 May 2020
Wednesday, 6 May 10:00, 6 May 2020
Tuesday, 5 May 17:05, 5 May 2020
Thursday, 30 April 17:10, 30 April 2020
Tuesday, 28 April 10:30, 28 April 2020
Friday, 24 April 09:35, 24 April 2020
Thursday, 23 April 17:00, 23 April 2020
Wednesday, 22 April 14:25, 22 April 2020
Monday, 20 April 17:45, 20 April 2020
Friday, 17 April 12:30, 17 April 2020
Thursday, 16 April 09:45, 16 April 2020
Tuesday, 14 April 11:30, 14 April 2020
Thursday, 9 April 09:00, 9 April 2020
Wednesday, 8 April 15:40, 8 April 2020
Wednesday, 1 April 15:50, 1 April 2020
Friday, 27 March 11:40, 27 March 2020
Thursday, 26 March 18:30, 26 March 2020
Tuesday, 24 March 15:40, 24 March 2020
Monday, 23 March 15:40, 23 March 2020
Friday, 20 March 16:00, 20 March 2020
Thursday, 19 March 09:15, 19 March 2020
Wednesday, 18 March 16:00, 18 March 2020
Tuesday, 17 March 12:50, 17 March 2020
Monday, 16 March 17:15, 16 March 2020

Campus communications

 
2020

New SRC and other updates 16:44, 4 November 2020
Virtual graduation ceremonies 13:30, 21 October 2020
Online staff assembly and other updates 15:09, 30 September 2020
Fee adjustments and other updates 15:21, 16 September 2020
Call for proposals: TLC2020 10:15, 26 August 2020
SAULM survey and other updates 15:30, 5 August 2020
COVID-19 cases and other updates 15:26, 5 August 2020
New UCT Council and other updates 15:12, 15 July 2020
Upcoming UCT virtual events 09:30, 15 July 2020
Pre-paid data for UCT students 14:25, 22 April 2020
Update for postgraduate students 12:55, 20 April 2020
UCT Human Resources and COVID-19 16:05, 19 March 2020
UCT confirms second COVID-19 case 09:15, 19 March 2020
Update on UCT COVID-19 response 13:50, 11 March 2020
Update on COVID-19 17:37, 6 March 2020

Resources

Video messages from the Department of Medicine

Getting credible, evidence-based, accessible information and recommendations relating to COVID-19

The Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, are producing educational video material for use on digital platforms and in multiple languages. The information contained in these videos is authenticated and endorsed by the team of experts based in the Department of Medicine. Many of the recommendations are based on current best evidence and are aligned to provincial, national and international guidelines. For more information on UCT’s Department of Medicine, please visit the website.


To watch more videos like these, visit the Department of Medicine’s YouTube channel.

Useful information from UCT

External resources


News and opinions


Statements and media releases


Media releases



Read more  

Statements from Government



 
 

In an email to the UCT community, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said:
“COVID-19, caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, is a rapidly changing epidemic. [...] Information [...] will be updated as and when new information becomes available.”

 

We are continuing to monitor the situation and we will be updating the UCT community regularly – as and when there are further updates. If you are concerned or need more information, students can contact the Student Wellness Service on 021 650 5620 or 021 650 1271 (after hours), while staff can contact 021 650 5685.

 

TOP