Report on the 2016 KwaZulu-Natal Pearson eLearning Pilot Project

Abstract

Governments and institutions in Africa are increasingly turning to ICT-based solutions in order to improve the education performance of their students. Specifically, the promise of eLearning to improve and to better facilitate learning has spurred innovation towards provision of eLearning resources on mobile devices such as tablets. Tablets hold enormous potential in delivery of eLearning due to their portability and provision for multiple uses. This study aimed at understanding the efficacy of tablet-based digital content on teachers and learners and consequently, to offer recommendations for sustainable, scalable eLearning models. This report presents key findings from an eLearning research pilot conducted in 12 schools at KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The results indicate that an eLearning intervention could have an impact on the learners’ subject-specific skills, that teachers and learners gained digital literacy in their use of the eLearning intervention, that learners gained confidence in using the eLearning intervention and integrated various digital resources in their learning over time, that learners were sharing content more over time, that the majority of the teachers felt comfortable integrating the digital content in their teaching over time. The findings in this report would help educational leaders, content developers, technological providers and the Department of Education to make sound decisions in relation to developing and implementing eLearning interventions, especially in South African schools. Based on the findings of the eLearning research pilot, this report also presents recommendations based on pedagogy, eLearning, training, support and facilitation, implementation, hardware, partnerships and provides possible considerations for tablets in educational rollouts.