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22 October 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Prof Liezel Nel, who received the 2020 Excellence in Learning and Teaching Award in the category Research in Teaching and Learning, says this recognition of her work is undoubtedly an inspiration to continue her research with even more vigour and enthusiasm.

Prof Liezel Nel, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Informatics at the University of the Free State (UFS), was announced as winner in the category Research in Teaching and Learning at the 2020 UFS Excellence in Learning and Teaching Awards, hosted by the Centre for Teaching and Learning in September this year.

Prof Nel, who is passionate about the Computer Science discipline due to its ever-changing nature, says she not only constantly revises the subject material, but also the way in which she presents it to students. “In order to be an effective facilitator, I adjust my teaching and learning strategies based on the needs of my students and their pace and depth of understanding,” she says.

As an adjunct professor, she currently teaches Web Development and Internet Programming modules on both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Prof Nel also supervises master's and PhD projects in the field of Computer Science Education. 

She believes in a research-informed way of teaching that is sensitive to the needs of individual students in a diverse educational context. Prof Nel is constantly investigating innovative ways in which the teaching and learning experiences of Computer Science students can be enhanced. “My teaching philosophy is geared towards the empowerment of my students in order for them to take control of their own learning experiences,” she adds.

Best teaching experience

She is in the position of working with students who are entering higher education for the first time and is of the opinion that especially first-year students need to be exposed to the best possible teaching experience.

“My students and I work together to overcome many of the unique challenges they are experiencing in order to better prepare them on an academic and a personal level for the successful completion of their higher education journey and for a successful career in Computer Science,” she says.

Besides the role that Prof Nel is playing in preparing first-year students, she also participates in the development of postgraduate students. “By involving all my postgraduate students in teaching and learning-related projects, I believe that I am playing a valuable role in shaping a new generation of teaching and learning scholars,” declares Prof Nel.

Continuous excellence

Her work to enhance the learning experiences of her students has received both local and national recognition. Since 2009, she has received numerous awards, including the UFS prestige award for Excellence in e-learning, the UFS prestige award for Excellence in Teaching; and the UFS Vice-Chancellor’s award for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Prof Nel also received the National Excellence in Teaching and Learning award from the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa and the Council for Higher Education (CHE).

News Archive

First Beyers Naudé lecture held at UFS' Qwaqwa Campus
2011-03-15

Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), delivered the first lecture to celebrate Dr Beyers Naudé’s life and legacy in a series of public lectures at the UFS’ Qwaqwa Campus.

In his address, Prof. Jansen warned that South Africa cannot afford a genocide of which the seeds are sown by those who continue to use racist and derogatory terms against their fellow citizens.
 
“The present debate in the media that was started by Jimmy Manyi’s comments and subsequently followed by the column by Kuli Roberts in the Sunday World about what they called ‘coloureds’ in the Western Cape, is not a ‘coloured’ debate. It is a South African debate and the silence from certain quarters of our society is disturbing,” said Prof. Jansen.
 
He pointed out that all countries that had previously experienced genocide had started in the same way when “those who were in power chose to keep quiet when wrong and dangerous statements were being uttered”.
 
“This country needs courageous citizens and leaders like ‘Oom Bey’ who sacrificed all the privileges and opportunities of being an Afrikaner in apartheid South Africa. He courageously stood up against his own people by declaring apartheid as evil and un-Christian. That’s the consciousness that all Kovsie students and the entire community must strive for.
 
We want Kovsie graduates who are also graduates of life. We want Kovsie graduates who will have the conscience to question wrong-doing, irrespective of who did it, and irrespective of where wrong-doing is being done. That’s the Kovsies we will all be proud of,” Prof. Jansen concluded. 
 
The lecture was preceded by a student debate on the theme and was the first of the four in the 8th annual Beyers Naudé Memorial Lecture Series themed Conscience and courage in the struggle for justice. The second lecture will be presented by Prof. Kwandile Kondlo, who heads the UFS’ Centre for African Studies, on 28 April 2011, and the main event is scheduled for 9 September 2011.
 
 
Media Release
14 March 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za
 

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