The TOGI’s 2021 Journal is published at a time when the education system globally, as in South Africa, has faced significant challenges from multiple fronts. In the past two years, most education institutions faced the daunting task of changing face-to-face classroom teaching and learning, to an online mode. The accompanying challenges this created, provided a unique opportunity for education to innovate as a field, and to reinvent centuries old practices, policies, pedagogies and processes. Unpresented innovation blossomed as millions of educators around the world digitized, optimised and redesigned learning for digital spaces.
At the Two Oceans Graduate Institute, innovation is no stranger. Some years back, educators from TOGI already pivoted to online learning, changing face-to-face teaching and learning to completely online modes. Since then, TOGI’s learning design processes have grown and evolved to create online learning that engages, equips and empowers students. This is an ongoing learning process and one that the life-long learners at TOGI embrace whoIe heartedIy.
TOGI‘s lecturers are not only innovators but also educational researchers. This journal captures some of the exciting research undertaken by TOGI’s researchers. It starts with Alex Bryant’s fascinating work about isiCamto, the 12a (unofficial) language of South Africa while Carine Janse van Rensburg presents deep insight into the world of children‘s literature. Both Drs Pam Miller and Geo Westraadt focus on their own teaching and learning practice. Dr Miller researches best practice in creating and presenting Orientation modules for first-time TOGI students, and Dr Westraadt explores the troubling increase in Plagiarism by higher education students and ways to address this. The TOGI Journal concludes with Shahida Anthony’s poster presentation of research on students experiences of Natural Science practicals during Teaching Practice and how COVID-19 protocols impacted this.
These papers and the poster presentation were first presented at TOGI’s Research Sharing Day in September 2021. In the fully online sharing day, presenters shared their research, whether completed, planned or a work-in-progress. The day was preceded by an Abstract Writing and Ethics workshop to sharpen writing skills and reinforce ethical standards for research within the organisation. Following the research sharing day, presenters anonymized papers and the poster was submitted to a double-blind peer review process. The outcomes from the peer review process was shared with authors who finalized their submissions. These final double-blind peer reviewed articles and the poster is included in this journal, the culmination of vision, dedication and perseverance. Congratulations to all authors for this interesting and innovative collection in TOGI’s 2021 Journal!
Author
Dr Isabel Tarling