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An update on learning and teaching at the UFS

24 March 2020

Dear Student,

We know that many of you might be feeling anxious and uncertain about how the University of the Free State (UFS) is going to take learning and teaching forward during these extraordinary times. On Monday, 16 March 2020, the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen tasked the Teaching and Learning Management Group (TLMG) to develop alternative ways of taking learning and teaching forward. The TLMG, under the leadership of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), has been hard at work at developing a new approach.

Like most other universities, our best alternative to continue our learning and teaching is to move online. We are aware that moving online poses many challenges for our students since many of you do not have frequent and reliable access to the internet, or data when you are off-campus, or do not own the necessary devices to learn optimally. We are also aware that learning in a new way will mean that students and staff will need to create spaces for themselves to learn and work at home/off-campus. It does appear that we will be working online for an extended period of time, and we want to assure you that we will be here to support you in this journey as best we can.

The Keep calm, Teach On, and #UFSLearnOn campaigns are aimed at creating the best possible support for lecturers and students, respectively,
by adapting existing support and practices most suited to our new online environment. The new approach has the following components:

Providing and developing support for lecturers to move learning and teaching online.
Creating appropriate communication and support measures to help you learn as effectively as possible. The first of these is the Keep calm and #UFSLearnOn transition resource which will be shared with you through various platforms.
Repositioning existing support systems to create a learning and teaching environment that considers the diverse needs and circumstances of our students.

As a start, here are the Keep calm and #UFSLearnOn dates on which resources will be released:

25 March: This first edition will focus on helping you assess your current realities, and kick-start the planning for learning to continue.
1 April: Release of Edition 2; this edition will be focused on getting connected and understanding how you will be learning when academic activities resume.
8 April: Edition 3 to be released; the third edition will focus on the skills you need to be a successful student in the new environment.
15 April: Edition 4 to be released; this edition will focus on helping you to stay and finish strong. This edition will also provide you with the university’s reassessment of the situation, which will be determined by the country's presidential lockdown situation.

17 April: Academic activities will resume

We are very aware that for many of you access to devices, data, and networks is a challenge. As part of Universities South Africa (USAf), the UFS is negotiating to get our digital learning website zero-rated to minimise your costs. You will be receiving a survey link to provide us with information on the additional support you might need to connect and learn.

We know our students are resourceful and resilient to succeed in extraordinary circumstances. In the meantime, take some time to rest and recharge.

Best wishes,

Dr EL van Staden
Vice-Rector: Academic
University of the Free State

News Archive

Plant-strengthening agent enhances natural ability of plants to survive

2015-07-27

Drought, diseases, and fungi. These are factors that farmers have no control over, and they often have to watch despondently as their crops are damaged. In addition, the practice of breeding plants in special and strictly-controlled conditions, has resulted in crops losing the chemical ability to protect themselves in nature.

Researchers in the Department of Soil, Crop, and Climate Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) have developed an organic agent that restores this chemical imbalance in plants. It enables the plant to build its own resistance against mild stress factors, and thus ensures increased growth and yield by the plant.

ComCat®, a plant-strengthening agent, is the result of extensive research by the German company, Agraforum AG, together with the UFS. Commercialisation was initially limited to Europe, while research was done at the UFS.

“Plants have become weak because they were grown specially and in isolation. They can’t protect themselves any longer,” says Dr Elmarie van der Watt from the department.

Dr Van der Watt says that, in nature, plants communicate by means of natural chemicals as part of their resistance mechanisms towards various stress conditions. These chemicals enable them to protect themselves against stress conditions, such as diseases and fungi (biotic conditions) or wind and droughts (abiotic conditions).

Most wild plant varieties are usually well-adapted to resist these stress factors. However, monoculture crops have lost this ability to a large extent.

The European researchers extracted these self-protection chemicals from wild plants, and made them available to the UFS for research and development.

“This important survival mechanism became dormant in monoculture crops. ComCat® wakes the plant up and says ‘Hey, you should start protecting yourself’.”

Research over the last few years has shown that the agent, applied mostly as a foliar spray, subsequently leads to better seedlings, as well as to growth, and yields enhancement of various crops. This is good news for the agricultural sector as it does not induce unwanted early vegetative growth that could jeopardise the final yield ? as happened in the past for nitrogen application at an early growth stage.

“The use of synthetic agents, such as fungicides which contain copper, are now banned. Nowadays, options for natural and organic agriculture is being investigated. This product is already widely used in Europe, but because farmers are often swamped by quacks, the South African market is still somewhat sceptical.”

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