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Remote Online Sessions

The 2020 March MSSC and the June/July RAEC sessions were postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak (COVID 19) and the subsequent national lockdown. The Enrichment (RAEC) Programme was replaced with online engagement to support the learners’ development into individuals who are able to think critically, are curious about the world around them and who can take responsibility for their learning so that they become independent life-long learners. The programme ran for 19 weeks for grade 12’s, 18 for grade 11’s, and 17 for grade 10s over a five-month period (June - October).

Furthermore, in light of the time these learners have missed in school, and given the importance of these subjects for university access, support for Mathematics and Physical Sciences drove the online grade 12 programme. The Programme also included selected enrichment subject areas, geared to enhance their well-being, university readiness and to enhance their chances of success in a tertiary environment.

The activities involved synchronous and asynchronous offline learning through written interaction with content, written discussion on the discussion forums and reflection on the Learning Management System (LMS) on which the Programme was hosted.

Learners received:

  • Short videos/presentations that covered key concepts for the week uploaded onto the LMS
  • A 30-minute synchronous engagement (via the meeting tool) with the facilitator (Opportunity for learners to ask questions/address common misconceptions) 
  • Written content - split into "digestible" portions after which learners might need to participate in a thread on the discussion forum or complete a worksheet. 
  • In Maths and science, learners would be given a worksheet that includes a range of questions (easy to difficult) as well as the memos to these questions. 
  • Curated third-party resources that could be linked to activities in the worksheet and/or lesson page on LMS

Survey

To help the Programme gain an understanding of how the TTP learners were coping with both the implementation of the intervention and the COVID-19 pandemic, check-in surveys were administered to learners in regular intervals. Three surveys were administered. Below are some of the results.

Candidates were asked, Do you see a link between the TTP online work and my overall school work?

  • 96% of grade 10 learners responded yes
  • 96% of grade 11 learners responded yes
  • 98% of grade 12 learners responded yes

Skills that learners have acquired from the TTP online engagement

  • Use of technological applications/platforms
  • Adaptation/flexibility
  • Independence
  • Communication and writing
  • Time management
  • Multi-tasking
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