INDEX Introduction: The ADS portfolio and Division .............................................................. 1 Centre Reports: ■ The Centre for Academic Technologies (CAT).............................................. 23 ■ The Academic Development Centre (ADC) ................................................... 52 ■ The Centre for Professional Academic Staff Development (CPASD) .......... 82 ■ The Centre for Psychological Services & Career Development (PsyCaD) ...... 110 Annexure 1: Office: People with Disability (O: PWD) ................................................. 175 Annexure 2: Office: Work Integrated Learning (O: WIL) ............................................. 185 Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................... 189 ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT ANNUAL REPORT INTRODUCTION: THE ADS PORTFOLIO AND DIVISION The overarching function of the academic development and support portfolio, which is led by an Executive Director, is to deliver high level assistance to the Deputy Vice- Chancellor Academic. The portfolio’s core business relates to the development and support of students and staff, with work focused around the following thrusts: • Contributions to curriculum and programme development and enhancement, and to excellence in teaching and learning; • Contributions to policy and strategy development in the domain of teaching and learning; • Delivery of academic development and support (including psychosocial support) to students; • Delivery of wide-ranging professional academic development to staff, teaching assistants and tutors; • Promotion of innovative learning with technology, for both staff and students; • Delivery of extended curricula to students who are identified as needing additional initial support; • Specific projects such as the First-Year Experience Project, Orientation and the National Benchmark Tests, the Staff Qualifications Programme, and the roll-out of the Teaching and Learning Strategy and UJ Teaching Philosophy; • Monitoring and evaluation of the impact of these various undertakings. The Division of Academic Development Support forms a major component within the academic development and support portfolio. During 2012 the Division consisted of four Centres, each headed by a Director: • The Academic Development Centre (ADC), which offers developmental academic support to students and staff (Dr Andre van Zyl, Acting Director) • The Centre for Technology-Assisted Learning (CenTAL), which manages the Learning Management System Edulink and supports the integration of technologies into student learning. From November 2012 CenTAL became known as the Centre for Academic Technologies (CAT) (Professor Alan Amory) • A small Centre for Professional Academic Staff Development (CPASD), which drives and coordinates the professional development of the full spectrum of academic staff (Dr Riette de Lange) • The Centre for Psychological Services and Career Development (PsyCaD), which focuses on the psycho-social well-being of students and staff (Professor Gertie Pretorius) Each Centre has addressed a number of the portfolio thrusts listed above, in terms of its capacity and focus, with the Executive Director also leading or being involved in several initiatives, many of which also involve members of Faculties. In addition, divisional activities were guided by the ADS three-year Strategic Plan (2010 – 2012). Further detail will be given when the Division is presented below. 1 The Annual Report is structured as follows: an initial section will focus on the overall role of the portfolio and on progress made during 2012 in addressing key thrusts, overarching initiatives, portfolio risks and mitigating strategies. This will be lead into an introduction to the Division, including resource management, stakeholder engagement and research output. An in-depth individual report from each of the four Centres will follow. A brief concluding section will address plans for 2013 and beyond. 1. PERFORMANCE: INSTITUTIONAL INITIATIVES First Year Experience Programme In 2012 the First Year Programme was in its third year of implementation, building on the success and experience of the previous years. The programme is led by the Executive Director: Academic Development and Support, assisted by an FYE Coordinator, who runs focused initiatives and promotes liaison with Faculties; the Coordinator is crucial to the success of the programme. During the course of 2012 the initial FYE Coordinator, Dr Andre van Zyl, was appointed Acting Director of the Academic Development Centre; he was succeeded as FYE Coordinator by Ms Soraya Motsabi, presently also in an acting capacity. The FYE Committee, with representatives from all Faculties and many Divisions, continued to meet on a monthly basis for coordination and discussion of arising matters; regular ‘good practice’ presentations delivered by internal experts sought to build further capacity. These presentations included the following topics: Assessment for learning; the SAFENET project; a presentation on the new vision for UJLIC by the Librarian, Dr Rookaya Bawa; Extended Orientation in the Department of Philosophy, the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Law. FYE Committee meetings are well attended, and the commitment of Faculty staff who teach first year modules is notable. Attention was paid throughout the year to the sustainability of FYE. FYE is particularly successful in Faculties where there is strong leadership for the initiative – either through a Vice-Dean or a committed and enthusiastic individual. However, there is clearly risk in relying too strongly on a single individual to carry Faculty rollout, and hence attention focused on encouraging the formalisation of Faculty FYE Committees, preferably under senior Faculty leadership. In most Faculties such a well-functioning Committee is now in place, and the goal for 2013 is to have each Faculty institute and support such a committee. All FYE components continued to run during 2012. Particular attention was paid during the first few months of the year to the Safenet programme, as it is imperative to identify ‘at risk’ students at this early stage of the academic year; a refinement was the direct involvement of ADC and PsyCaD in the initial interviews with these students, allowing students to become immediately aware of available development interventions. However a concern remains the relatively low response rate to the SMS messages sent to ‘at risk’ students, requesting them to come in for an interview. Work continued on the evaluation of NBT performance as a possible predictor of subsequent performance at UJ; approximately half of our first year entrants now write NBT tests prior to entry. The Faculty of Science has developed procedures to utilise NBTs for placement in certain developmental modules in 2013. 2 Feedback from the Tutor Development Unit confirmed that Departments are increasingly adhering to the UJ Policy on Tutors and Tutoring, not least in terms of the training and monitoring of tutors; it is also especially important that tutorials are fully integrated into the module programme and not simply left to tutors to develop and manage. Senate approval was obtained for a Strategy on English Language Development, which will require all undergraduate curricula to include some components of language development by 2015. For the first time, the Residence academic excellence programme was rolled out in most residences (in partnership between Student Affairs and ADS, who supplied a training manual), with promising results; further attention will be paid to involving the residence wardens more fully, and to training senior students as Residence Academic Advisers. The FYE Coordinator paid special attention to involving students in FYE, though progress remains slow; the Faculty of Education has however been very successful in obtaining feedback from student representatives in Faculty FYE meetings, and student involvement is perhaps most easily achieved at Faculty level. FYE research continued: data collection by means of the Student Profile Questionnaire and the Early Student Experience Questionnaire resulted in Faculty profiles being circulated at an early date; Faculties and Departments are increasingly finding these of value. National and international contacts were further developed: most notably, the FYE Coordinator was invited as plenary speaker to the international FYE Conference in Canada. Marketing and publicity now include the FYE website, social media, and regular interviews on UJFM. Our long-term focus on First Year students now appears to be having marked impact, with success rates improving from 76.5% in 2011 to 80.0% in 2012, and even more pleasingly, our demographic breakdown now shows increasingly equivalent first year performance by white and black students. In order better to understand the achievements, and continuing challenges, of FYE, an in-depth evaluation was conducted and a wide range of opinion solicited, from both UJ staff and students, and from one international and one national expert (this latter on the basis of written UJ FYE documentation.) Student inputs included the responses, over the past three years, to the Initial Student Experience Questionnaire, which confirm steady improvement in the quality of the student experience. Qualitative feedback was obtained from 200 first year students on all campuses through a participatory learning and action research approach, implemented with the assistance of PsyCaD peer