Vacancy: Saide Executive Director

The Saide Board of Trustees is seeking to appoint an Executive Director to succeed the incumbent who is retiring from her position.

If you believe that you ‘fit the bill’, please prepare a one-to-two page written motivation giving evidence of why you believe this, and send it, together with a CV and the names and contact details of three work-related referees, via email to: vacancies@saide.org.za, by 18 September 2023.
Remuneration will be commensurate with skills and experience.

Job Advert

2023 NADEOSA Conference 24-25 May

NADEOSA  ANNUAL CONFERENCE:   25 - 26 MAY 2023

hosted by the: University of Pretoria - Groenkloof Campus

Conference Theme: Student Success

Conference Sub-Themes: First Year Experience; Learner Analytics; Ethics of using student data; Academic student advising; Student support services; Graduate employability.

Dear Conference Delegates

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the University of Pretoria’s Groenkloof Campus on 25 and 26 May. We are excited to return to a face-to-face NADEOSA Conference. Please find attached a draft programme for the conference (still subject to change). You will receive the final printed programme at the conference. We also hope you will join us for the cocktail reception at the end of Day 1.

Conference Programme.

If you need directions to the Groenkloof Campus, please click here. Parking will be available on campus.

There will be signs directing you to the venues on the Groenkloof Campus, but click here if you want a map of the campus.

If you have any questions, please email info@nadeosa.org.za

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Britta Zawada will speak on the new CHE Quality Standards.

Britta Zawada completed her first degrees at Stellenbosch University with a focus on general linguistics and languages. Her masters and doctoral studies in Cognitive Linguistics were completed at the University of South Africa (UNISA). She also holds a postgraduate qualification in teaching (from the University of Pretoria) and in Distance Education and e-Learning (from the University of Maryland in the USA). Britta first started at Stellenbosch and later at UNISA progressing from a junior lecturer to eventually being the Chair of the Department of Linguistics at UNISA. She also has experience in scientific editing, translation and interpreting, from fields such as geology, theology and linguistics. She ended her 33 years at UNISA with a decade of various leadership roles in the College of Human Sciences, mostly with a focus on teaching and learning and quality assurance. She was awarded the UNISA Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Britta has presented nationally and internationally at conferences, has published peer-reviewed articles and a book, as well as supervised both masters and doctoral students in Cognitive Linguistics. She has been the Director for Institutional Audits at the Council on Higher Education in South Africa since February 2020, and now oversees the implementation of the new Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) at the CHE in a full-time capacity.

Prof Sehoole will speak on Graduate Employability

Professor Chika Sehoole is a professor of higher education and the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria. He obtained his PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in December 2002. In 2003/4 he was a visiting Rockefeller post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. In 2005/06 he was a New Century Fulbright Fellow again, at the same university. His research interests are in the areas of higher education policy, internationalization of higher education, higher education in Africa and globalization of higher education. He has served in several international research projects focusing on higher education and providing expertise from the South African and African perspectives. In 2013-2017 he served as the Chairperson of the Board of the African Network for Internationalisation of Education (ANIE) and he is currently serving on its board. He currently serves as the chairperson of the Education Deans’ Forum of South Africa. He has three edited scholarly books on higher education and published more than 40 articles in journal articles, book chapters and popular media.

Dr Amory will speak on Student Success from the perspective of the Siyaphumelela Project.

Dr Alan Amory is interested in learning technologies and is the project lead for the Siyaphumelela initiative. He joined the Centre for Academic Technologies, University of Johannesburg, after working in the Faculty of Education. Before that, he spent a brief period as acting Chief Director for Education Support Services at the Gauteng Department of Education. Previously Alan worked in the Biology Department of the University of Natal for 15 years before he was employed as the Director of the Centre for Information Technology in Higher Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, where he and a small team supported the academic community in the use of educational technology. Alan has received numerous prestigious awards and is the author of many peer-reviewed articles, peer-reviewed conference proceedings and conference presentations.

Previous News

Services

  • Conferences and Workshops

    Nadeosa hosts an annual distance education conference. We also host smaller workshops providing our members an opportunity to engage on matters of mutual interest or concern. In other cases our workshops aim to introduce new concepts or technologies related to distance education.

  • Networks

    Over the years NADEOSA has built-up strong networks of people involved in distance education in South Africa, the rest of Africa and elsewhere in the world.Our members have engaged extensively with regional associations such as Deasa and international distance education organisations such as the Commonwealth of Learning, International Council for Distance Education, European Distance Education Network, Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia. The network has been further strengthened through ongoing interaction with educational institutions providing both distance education and other flexible learning methods.

  • Information Services

    NADEOSA provides members with a regular information service.The following services are available to members:

    • Daily education current awareness service: This news article service has a focus on distance education in Africa and elsewhere in the world, South African education policy and related information, use of technology in education and education technology applications.
    • Document service: This service covers most of the subjects above, but the resources are more substantial than press articles.
    • Conference listing: A conference listing by date of distance education conferences around the world and also more general educational conferences taking place in South Africa.
    • Journal abstract service: Abstracts from educational journals relevant to the NADEOSA community.

Resources

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About Us

Word from the Chairperson

Welcome to the site of the National Association of Distance Education and Open Learning in South Africa (Nadeosa). Nadeosa is a forum for collaboration on Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in South Africa. The association was established in 1996, with the initial aim of promoting access to lifelong learning of high quality. The founding members were unanimous in their belief that distance education methods could play a major role in facing South Africa’s educational challenges. Over the years, this belief has remained constant; the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic has further proven this belief right. The association keeps evolving with the ever-changing landscape of ODL. As an association, we are determined through concerted efforts to lend a voice to practitioners in the field in order to impact practice, and influence policy. Nadeosa is governed by an Executive structure made up of institutional representatives and individuals that are co-opted based on their valuable contributions to the organisation. As an organization committed to promoting access to high quality open and flexible distance education, we offer a variety of services to our membership which are meant to keep the up to date with latest developments in the field. These services include workshops, sharing through annual conferences, and resources and tools relevant for distance education. We invite everyone, including non-members to participate in these services.


Objectives

  • To facilitate collaboration among distance education and open learning organisations in South Africa.
  • To advocate awareness, understanding, and application of distance education and open learning amongst policy makers, practitioners, and learners.
  • To promote research and evaluation of distance education and open learning in South Africa.
  • To exert influence with regard to adequate policy (including financial support) for distance education.
  • To advance the professional interests of distance education practitioners.
  • To promote and enhance quality assurance in distance education.

Aims of the Association

The overarching aim of this Association is to provide a forum for South African organisations and individuals who are committed to increasing access to an affordable, cost-effective and quality learning environment in which learners are empowered to become self sufficient members of society.


Committee

  • Ruth Aluko (President)
    University of Pretoria
  • Jako Poolman (Vice President)
    BMT College
  • Jenny Glennie (Treasurer)
    Saide
  • Ephraim Mhlanga (Secretariat)
    Saide
  • Adele Bellingan
    IQ Academy
  • Amy Long
    IQ Academy
  • Asteria Nsamba
    University of South Africa
  • Greig Krull (Individual member )
    University of the Witwatersrand
  • Jeanette Smit
    Stadio Higher Education
  • Kiveshnie Naidoo
    MANCOSA
  • Lynette Jacobs
    University of the Free State
  • Mary Ooko
    University of Pretoria
  • Moses Zulu (Secretariat Support)
    Saide
  • Mpine Makoe
    University of South Africa
  • Phumza Makgato-Khunou
    University of South Africa
  • Rassie Louw
    North West University
  • Violet Phejane
    University of the Free State

Become a Member

Organisation
Individual

Code of Ethics

This code of ethics designed and adopted by the NADEOSA member council is designed to encourage membership by providing a guide to the values of the organization and to enable members to become part of a positive culture of Distance Education in South Africa.

As a member of the National Association of Distance Education and Open Learning in South Africa, we undertake to promote access to and success in lifelong education and training of good quality. We seek to put learners first, recognizing and building on their knowledge and experiences, and responding to their needs. We will support processes and systems to increase access, mobility and quality in the national system in order to provide an increasing range of learning possibilities, offering learners greater flexibility in choosing what, where, how and at what pace they learn.

As members of NADEOSA we will endeavour to:

  • Promote and enhance quality in distance education and in particular seek to align our programmes with the Nadeosa criteria;

  • Work collaboratively with organizations and individuals involved or interested in distance education methods and/or open learning principles in South Africa;

  • Ensure that we understand and apply distance education methods and open learning principles as policy makers, practitioners and for our learners;

  • Evaluate all aspects our programmes and improve them in line with these findings;

  • Support activities to develop adequate policy (including financial support) for distance education;

  • Advance the professional interests of distance education practitioners; Support professional development for distance education and open learning;

  • Comply with statutory registration and accreditation requirements.