INDUSTRY WATCH
Collaborate, a virtual classroom solution
that powered online teaching and was
initially used to provide on-going support to
lecturers to facilitate post-graduate degree
programmes in Africa.
“Collaborate Ultra made online teaching
and learning much easier. Recording
and playback of sessions was easy, and
it integrates seamlessly with the new
Blackboard Student application. The
shutdown of the university in 2016
contributed to increased use of Collaborate.
IT IS AN INVALUABLE ASSET
NOT ONLY FOR LECTURERS
AND STUDENTS BUT
ALSO FOR OTHERS IN THE
UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY,
SUCH AS ADMINISTRATORS.
In subsequent years, on average, more than
10,000 sessions were launched with more
than 17 000 users on average attending
Collaborate sessions in 2018 and 2019,” said
Dolf Jordaan Deputy Director of E-Learning
and Media Development.
Jordaan added that, subsequently, exam or
test preparation classes became a frequent
use case for the solution and even used by
lecturers as part of a ‘flipped classroom’
approach, where they provide recorded
content to students to watch before
attending the lecture.
The value of the technology is also showcased
through its use by a retired professor to
provide online tutor classes to students. Prof
Lou Pretorius values the functions available
in Collaborate to engage with students and
summarises this as follows:
“The one feature of Collaborate that has
been a great help to both the students and
me during the past more than four years is
the polling tool. The students are given a
problem, and by then posing the appropriate
polling question, I quickly know how many
students understand the work and how
much explaining still has to be done.”
Lecturers also used the platform to support
students for consultations and post-graduate
support, while students use Collaborate to
do project presentations. Collaborate allows
lecturers to record their sessions and provide
students who missed a live session the
opportunity to access the recorded version.
Dr Angelique Kritzinger values Collaborate. “It
is a really useful tool for teaching outside of
class,” she said. “As lecturers of a large group,
we have been using it for revision outside of
normal face-to-face class time for a number
Robert Speed, Vice President for the Middle
East and Africa at Blackboard
of years with great success. The students love
being able to interact in a less formal setting
with the lecturers and are more willing to ask
questions during these sessions.”
The events in 2020 changed the value of
Collaborate as a secure, stable and scalable
platform significantly. Blackboard, in
collaboration with Amazon Web Services
(AWS), invested in additional resources to
allow universities to provide on-going
support to students and academic staff
to continue with teaching and learning.
“Collaborate played a substantial role
during the last few weeks and will also do
so in the upcoming months to provide
support to students and staff during the
pandemic. As such, academic continuity
can be facilitated during the national
lockdown period, which may be longer
than expected,” Jordaan said.
Its value to provide support for the
university to continue is visible not only in
its usage since closure but also through
its use to provide support to the executive
leadership of the university.
Prof Norman Duncan, Vice-Principal:
Academic, at the University of
Pretoria describes his experience using
Collaborate. He said: “As a non-tech
person, I am extremely impressed
with Blackboard Collaborate. While
sophisticated and advanced in what it
offers (a recording facility, document
sharing, PowerPoint presentation
capabilities, polling), it is extremely easy
to utilise. It is an invaluable asset not only
for lecturers and students but also for
others in the university community, such
as administrators.”
The value of Collaborate to support
teaching and learning during the
recent COVID 19 pandemic is visible
in the data of the first few days in May
2020 when teaching activities were
resumed online for the second quarter
at the University of Pretoria. The
university created a unique solution for
students and staff to access UP Services.
In the first 11 days of May 2020, a
total of 15,749 session instances were
launched and 74,694 users attended
Collaborate sessions.
“The university will, as in 2016,
experience the value of its partnership
with Blackboard and AWS as world
leaders specifically through its
dependency on the use of Collaborate,
integrated into the Blackboard Learning
Management System” said Jordaan. •
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