Flexible Learning and Teaching Provision

Prof Shirley Walters

Welcome to the Flexible Learning and Teaching Provision Action Research blog 

We invite you to share some of the resources that have been created through the life of an innovative action research project on flexible learning and teaching in higher education. Please share your thoughts about the practical and intellectual issues of how we improve flexible provision opportunities for working students. 

From 2012 to mid-2015, UWC and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), have been in partnership to improve lifelong learning opportunities for working people. An intensive UWC, cross faculty action research project has addressed the question: what conditions need to change to give working people access to achieve success in higher education?

The project responded to a key contradiction which is that there is a national imperative to improve access and success in universities within a philosophy and approach to lifelong learning, but in several instances study opportunities are closing down. The question for residential universities is then: can we think about teaching and learning differently to respond to the complex lives of students, most of whom are working? What does flexible learning and teaching mean? Can we imagine moving beyond the binaries of full/part-time, day-time/after-hours, to have an inclusive conceptual framework which takes the diverse spectrum of students into account?

The action research has included working intensively with three pilot sites in the faculties of Economic Management Sciences (Political Studies), Arts (Library and Information Sciences) and Community Health Sciences (School of Public Health). It has surveyed all faculties to glean what colleagues mean by ‘flexible learning and teaching’ and a report has served at Senate. In addition we have stimulated debates and discussions across campus particularly through invitations to visiting professors, Tara Fenwick, Richard Edwards, and Anne Edwards, amongst others. A cross-faculty Senate Teaching and Learning Committee advisory committee, under Vivienne Bozalek’s leadership, has provided feedback and support.

Several documents have been produced and circulated during the life of the project, which ended in June 2015. Two colloquia have been held to disseminate findings; in addition a popular booklet and educational poster have been created for dissemination. Please contact us if you'd like to receive copies.  

Thank you for your interest!