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13 January 2020
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Story Eugene Seegers
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Photo Anja Aucamp
Spearheading the digital expansion of the conversational Sesotho course is IDEAS Lab Director, Johann Möller (middle). With him are from the left: Prof Pule Phindane, CUT; Dr Brenton Fredericks, CUT; Bahedile Letlala, UFS Department of African Languages; and Dr Elias Malete, UFS Department of African Languages.
For many years now, the UFS has been offering a one-year course in conversational Sesotho for staff members; this can then be followed up with the one-year course in advanced conversational Sesotho. The conversational Sesotho for students in the Faculty of Education was introduced in 2018 at the UFS.
The Central University of Technology (CUT) needed a conversational course for its first-year students and approached the Department of African Languages for the development of such a course. Living as we do in a multilingual country; this additional language skill opens doors and often hearts as well.
Using instructional design principles
However, the need was identified by both CUT and UFS to present this crucial information in a way that would be more appealing to digital natives as well as to those less familiar with technology. The Department of African Languages on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus, together with relevant departments from the CUT, approached the IDEAS Lab located on the UFS South Campus, since they already have a reputation for being a specialist on broadcasting and repackaging curricular content for digital presentations. The IDEAS Lab provided technical advice and built the multimedia programme, which will help the user to hear and practice phrases in Sesotho, using instructional design principles. The course will be available to both staff and students belonging to the two universities.
Room for growth
Johann Möller, Director of the IDEAS Lab, says this pilot programme will give both institutions the opportunity to test the use of multimedia for language acquisition. He adds, “Language is extremely complex, and we would like to expand this learning aid in the future.” In fact, the original design has room for growth built into it.
To keep things simple for the user and the building team, it was decided to start out with only four potential everyday scenarios where a staff member would like to speak Sesotho: Firstly, how to greet other persons from different genders; secondly, potential scenarios one might encounter in the university environment itself; thirdly, how to deal with situations at a hospital; and finally, how to use one’s language skills at a filling station.
Pronunciation is key
Each scenario contains three to four conversations that the learner can revise, along with images and audio that illustrate the situation and assist with correct pronunciation. The system does not allow the user to progress unless they have listened to the pronunciations of the sample sentences or phrases.
Further reading material and vocabulary lists are also provided, with the result that people who are using the programme can learn at their own pace. The authoring software Articulate Storyline was used to build the individual scenarios and each conversation or lesson within it. The lessons are also not dependent on an internet connection; they can be downloaded onto a flash memory drive and used offline.
UFS confers honorary doctorate on one of the world’s foremost academics
2012-11-26
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Prof. Martha Nussbaum
Photo: Supplied
26 November 2012
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The University of the Free State (UFS) will confer three honorary doctorates at the Summer graduation ceremony on 6 December 2012. One of the world’s foremost philosophers is among those to be honoured. Prof. Martha Nussbaum, described by The New York Times as “one of the most prominent female philosophers in America”, will be honoured with a D.Litt. degree in the Faculty of Humanities. Judge F.D.J. Brand, a former Constitutional Court judge, and Prof. Otto Walter Prozesky, one of the country’s foremost medical researchers, will also receive honorary doctorates.
Prof. Nussbaum, who has honorary doctorates from 40 colleges and universities in America, Canada, Asia and Europe, is recognised for her intellectual and public contribution to human development. She is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago and an active member of the American Philosophy Association. Prof. Nussbaum is well-known and respected as a public intellectual and is considered to be one of the most prominent philosophers in the world.
Prof. Prozesky is to be honoured for the important role that he played in the field of medical research, especially as the President of the Medical Research Council and as researcher/educator in the field of virology and HIV/Aids. He is to receive an honorary degree in Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Judge Brand, Extraordinary Professor in Private Law in the Faculty of Law at the UFS, is to receive a Doctor Legum degree in recognition of his considerable contribution to the legal science. More than 120 of his judgments are reported in South African legal reports. A review of recent South African legal journals (over the past five years) shows that reference is made to his judgments in at least 30 articles and case discussions.
The Summer graduation ceremony will be held in the Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus and will take place in two ceremonies. At 10:15, master’s degrees and doctorates will be awarded, and at 15:15 qualifications will be awarded in a combined graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Health Sciences and the School of Open Learning.
- Prof. Martha Nussbaum will lead a conversation with members of the public and the campus community on 7 December 2012. On 8 December 2012, she is the main speaker at the UFS’s conference on “Engaging the Other: Empathy and Breaking Transgenerational Cycles of Repetition” on the Bloemfontein Campus.