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Consuming the Romantic Utopia in Africa through Reality Television: Our Perfect Wedding
Full text linkReality television has challenged our understanding of modern life since its rapid rise in the early 2000s. Reality wedding shows, in particular, claim to portray the authentic expression of love shared by the participants. Research within this genre of reality television has mainly focused on audience reception as well as engagement with the content. However, the steady proliferation of reality wedding shows in Africa has gone largely uncritically celebrated as a sign of romantic love on the continent. Through a multimodal critical discourse analysis of episodes from the South African, Kenyan and Nigerian wedding show Our Perfect Wedding, we argue that the production choices of wedding reality shows are not value free but represent a profit logic co-opting of love by consumerist capitalism in order to perpetuate its existence even within non-Western contexts. We borrow from the concepts of conspicuous consumption and utopia to argue that audiences of reality television wedding shows in Africa are invited to consume displays of opulent consumption under the guise of celebrating utopian love
University as border crossing: Exploring the experiences of health sciences students from low-resourced school communities
Full text linkIn responding to calls to widen access to students from less privileged communities, a South African university revised its admission policy for health sciences degrees to achieve a student population that demographically represents South African society. The new policy extends capacity for up to 40% enrolment from rural and other low-resourced schools. In this paper we report on aspects of a broader study whose data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire. The paper shares university experiences of the first five cohorts of students from low-quintile and rural schools. We employed Phelan, Davidson and Cao’s (1991) model of students’ multiple worlds to understand participating students’ experiences of transitioning into and through university. The findings provide insights into how the life circumstances of students from low-socio-economic environments affect their transition into and through university at academic and social levels. Viewing transition through the metaphor of ‘border crossing’, these findings challenge stakeholders in higher education (HE) to work towards either easing the crossing or dissolving the boundaries altogether
Academic Integrity Quest: Anti-plagiarism game
Full text linkThis artifact presents an innovative educational game designed to introduce students to various types of plagiarism in an engaging and interactive format. Set against the backdrop of ancient times, this single-player quest-based game offers a unique approach to teaching academic integrity. Players embark on a 20-minute journey, navigating through challenges that require solving riddles and quizzes to progress. Each obstacle encountered represents a different form of plagiarism, allowing students to learn about these concepts in a contextualized and memorable way.
The game\u27s immersive storyline and period setting serve to captivate the player\u27s attention, making the learning process enjoyable and effective. By gamifying the often daunting topic of plagiarism, this educational tool aims to increase student engagement and retention of key concepts. The interactive nature of the game encourages active learning, enabling students to apply their understanding of plagiarism in practical scenarios.
This gamified approach to teaching plagiarism awareness can significantly enhance students\u27 understanding and retention of the subject matter compared to traditional instructional methods. The game\u27s potential for adaptation to various educational levels and its implications for improving academic integrity in higher education are also explored.
Play the game by clicking the link here: https://jexed-games.itch.io/anti-plagiarism-ques
A Pragmatic Approach to using LLMs
Full text linkThe advent of ChatGPT, and the plethora of similar large language models (LLMs) that followed it, has brought to the forefront aspects of artificial intelligence that have been discussed over the past seventy-five years or so. This paper posits that practitioners in the field of open and distance learning (ODL) provision should probably adopt a pragmatic approach to the utilisation of these new tools, similar to the ways in which ODL practitioners have embraced previous technologies. Reflecting on personal experience as well as current work in progress with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), the paper argues that a cautious and critical engagement, based on gradual improvement is probably going to be more beneficial than non-engagement or any attempt at delayed perfection.
Effect of Social Media on National Security During the 2020 ENDSARS Protests in Lagos State
Full text linkThis paper examines the effect of social media on national security during the 2020 ENDSARS protests in Lagos State, Nigeria. Quantitative design and primary sources of data were utilised. 357 Lagos State residents were sampled using a combination of simple random and convenience sampling techniques. In the data analysis, ordinal logistic regression was employed. The key findings are that social media roles such as the organisation of protesters and promotion of accountability had positive effects by contributing to better coordination and stability while roles such as the amplification of grievances, and documentation of human rights abuses had negative effects by exacerbating tensions and leading to greater instability. The paper concludes by recommending that the government should compel social media platforms (particularly X) to have a unit for fast-checking information content before being shared on their platforms and flagging up fake/misleading information, thereby mitigating potential security risks of social media; and the government (National Orientation Agency) should invest in digital literacy programmes to help the public better navigate the complexities of social media, particularly in distinguishing between accurate information and misinformation/fake information
Strategic Curriculum Redesign: A Triad Approach with Action-Mapping, Design Thinking, and Change Management
Full text linkAs new academics within a university’s CTL unit, we were assigned to teach the core module (Foundations) for the Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education. Recognizing that the existing course fell short of desired standards, consistency, and rigor, we initiated a deliberate process of improvement. In this practice paper, we present a single case study that demonstrates how the fusion of action mapping and design thinking facilitated change management, ultimately leading to a redesigned Certificate. Our approach leveraged Cathy Moore’s action-mapping model, which proved transformative. By combining it with Design Thinking principles, we created a structured, learner-centric framework for curriculum design - one that fosters active and engaging learning experiences. At its core, action-mapping involves identifying performance-based objectives, designing relevant activities, and integrating formative feedback. Throughout this process, we navigated the challenges of change management - consulting stakeholders, addressing resistance, and ensuring buy-in from faculty. The redesign process yielded a revised Foundations module (focused on didactics), an additional core module (Learning by Design, emphasizing pedagogy), and a completely revamped Certificate. This creative and sometimes ‘messy’ process aligned curriculum design with the practical challenges faced by lecturers, leading us as curriculum designers on an enriching journey of self-discovery. The implications of this integrated approach go beyond this case study and offer guidelines and a framework that can be adopted by other higher education institutions to navigate curriculum redesign. The alignment of performance outcomes, design empathy, and strategic change management principles facilitate curriculum innovation, particularly in response to evolving educational standards and student expectations
Trance and Transfiguration in Rock Art and literature, Unisa Press/Routledge 2025: By Richard Alan Northover
No full textAcademic courses on psychedelic drugs and religion are very popular among Ivy League universities, notably, Brown University, Berkeley, Duke, and Harvard University. Current research articles and books abound on the topic (see for example Johnson (2022), Richards (2016), Cherniak et al (2022)). The prevalence of the field speaks to its acceptance by mainstream academia. Medical research is also recognising the benefits of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of depression and addiction (Kuypers 2020)
Effects of Non-Tariff Measures on Agricultural Export Performance in COMESA
No full textBoth classical and neo-classical economists have long held the convention that free trade is a significant generator of welfare of nations. Despite, the exploitation and discriminatory application of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) as some form of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), which are an alternative to tariffs, has substantially expanded and is persistently constraining the path towards absolute free trade. This growing incidence has invoked the recognition of the compelling need to enhance the transparency of existing NTMs and promote research on their impact in developing countries as well as within and outside regional groupings such as COMESA. This study employs the gravity model to study the effects of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) measures on intra-COMESA exports. The findings indicate that NTMs have diverse effects on exports within the COMESA region. On one end, SPS measures are export enhancing whilst TBT measures negatively affect intra-COMESA agricultural export volumes. Given the results of this research, COMESA members are encouraged to reduce the application of TBT measures in order to stimulate exports within the bloc, and to expand the application of SPS measures so as to promote the trade in agricultural products
“We are not blind researchers”: Entering and negotiating power and privilege in schools for the blind as sighted researchers
No full textOur community engagement project aimed to capacitate secondary school teachers of visually impaired learners to use anatomically correct models during their comprehensive sexuality education lessons. Given that the beneficiaries of this project were ultimately visually impaired learners, as sighted researchers, we approached entry into schools for the blind with the need to acknowledge our privilege as able-bodied researchers. With the principle of “nothing about us, without us”, we further relied on two blind professors both locally and internationally as experts to guide our community praxis (i.e., how to position ourselves and manage possible resistance due to being outsiders). However, upon entering this space, we not only found that most staff (e.g., teachers) working with visually impaired learners were sighted. More importantly, our engagement within this space led us to realize that preoccupation with privilege tended to essentialize the powerlessness of people with disabilities (PwDs) more broadly. Moving from the decolonial project, we found that seeing ourselves as ‘privileged’ reproduced a charity model where PwDs are viewed as objects of pity, reliant on their able-bodied counterparts to be included in society. We found that the acknowledgement of power was a catharsis for us with limited benefit methodologically but with its own caveats
