Abstract
A significant event of the last two decades has been the appearance and
subsequent explosive growth of the World Wide Web and related technologies that
have had a notable effect on higher education and learning in particular
(Crossman, 1997:19; Hall & White, 1997:22; Alessi & Trollip, 2001:5: Oliver 2002).
Information and communication technology (ICT) or ‘elearning’ as it is known in
some countries, has emerged both locally and worldwide as a prominent
phenomenon in education (Oliver & Herrington, 2001) and the ensuing scramble
by educators to adopt the new technologies (compare Rogers, 1995) can be seen
by looking at the number of courses that have recently evolved under the banner
of e-learning, web-based education or online education. The rush to implement
ICT is particularly evident in Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) where
technology has come to be seen as a potentially valuable tool for educational
reform in higher education (Poole, 1997:2; Surrey & Land, 2000:145; Bates,
2000:7; Rosenberg, 2001:10).
Educational reform at Higher Education Institutions worldwide over the past two
decades is often ascribed to trends such as increased competition, decreased
enrolments, greater numbers of non-traditional students, changing societal
expectations and decreased government funding (Simonson & Thompson, 1997:4;
Surrey & Land, 2000:145). The dwindling student base and loss of university
students to corporate training programmes in South Africa is in line with these
trends and is seen as a major area of concern (McKenna, 1999:[online]). The use
of ICT in higher education, which is also progressively taking root in emerging
nations such as South Africa, adds another perspective to the issue of educational
reform (Hilliard & Kemp, 2000:22). Van Buren-Schele and Odendaal
(2001:[online]) put the local situation into perspective by affirming that the
introduction of ICT at institutions in developing countries like South Africa can be
far more challenging than it is for their counterparts in developed countries.
Factors that impact on the implementation of ICT normally include financial,
logistic, and technological aspects, but in many areas in South Africa,
requirements on a basic level such as access to electricity, computers and the
Internet place unique demands on some educational institutions. Local institutions
are therefore hard-pressed to improve teaching practice in order, firstly, to live up
to consumer expectations, then to show continual improvement and innovations in
the changing field of education (Cronjé & Murdoch, 2001:online).
Prof. D. van der Westhuizen