​​SoTL Virtual Conference 2020: Giving and receiving care should be at the heart of our efforts to create an institutional landscape of care

“At SU, thanks to your complete dedication and hard work on the academic project, we stopped nothing. You responded to the challenges with agility, resilience and innovation, as the papers at this conference will testify.”

This was the message of Prof Arnold Schoonwinkel, Vice-Rector: Learning and Teaching at Stellenbosch University (SU), during the opening session of the 13th annual and first ever virtual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) conference, on Wednesday 04 November 2020.

Against the background of an extremely challenging year, Schoonwinkel emphasised how important this conference was in demonstrating institutional care for all role players in the teaching and learning (T&L) project, thereby aligning to the theme of the conference - “Celebrate, Appreciate and Reflect on our COVID-19 experiences in the e-environment”, abbreviated as CARe. Schoonwinkel also reminded conference delegates that the conference theme appears to relate to learning and teaching functionalities, but it of course also underscores how we live out SU’s core values of excellence, compassion, accountability, respect and equity, known by a very similar acronym, ECARE.

Scholars and teachers from various faculties at SU had an opportunity to present their research, innovations and reflections, educate one another and inspire emerging scholars at the event, which is organised annually by the Division for Learning and Teaching Enhancement, and coordinated by the Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Every year, the SoTL conference provides a platform where academics share and celebrate teaching and learning practices and research. It also aims to address all aspects of teaching and learning at the University in an open, supportive and intellectually stimulating atmosphere.

Participation has grown exponentially since its inception in 2007, with 53 presentations and 299 registered participants attending this year, all in the online space for the very first time.

Instead of the customary conference keynote speaker, there was a CARe-note panel this year, to align with the conference theme. The purpose of the CARe-note was to create a shared and reflective space where the voices of management, lecturers, professional support staff and students could be heard. These were presented in the form of most authentic and sincere digital stories. Professors Koopman and Rewitzky, representing University Management, discussed how management responded to the care needs of staff and students, and showed compassion in many different and diverse ways. Representatives from the Professional Academic Support Staff Environment reflected on the challenging but enormously rewarding care work done, highlighting the central position of team work. The student voices spoke to the positive, open and caring responses from the university to the needs of students, which enabled them to “function effectively and survive”.

During the closing session of the conference, delegates had the opportunity to participate in brainstorming activities about the future actions of care giving and care receiving at the structural and cultural levels of the university. These conversations chartered a way forward as we endeavour to create an institutional landscape of care.

A definite highlight of the closing of the conference was the announcement of the winners of the best presentations. The following papers were adjudged the best in various categories:

·       Research track: “Strategies to teach graduate attributes – a scoping review” – by the late Dr Alwyn Louw and Dr Tiana Schultz

·       Innovation track: “Class recordings in a post-graduate financial accounting course: Student perceptions” – by Ms Gretha Steenkamp and Mr Alwyn Visser

·       Reflection Track: “Unintended benefits of an e-block toward clinical competence in physiotherapy” – by Ms AMS Schmutz, Dr Alison Lupton-Smith and Dr Marianne Unger.

·       Delegates’ Choice: “Institutional obstacles to authentic transformation at Stellenbosch University” – by Dr Anita Jonker

·       Best PREDAC Poster (as voted by the conference delegates): “Twenty-first-century learning: Keeping up with Gen Z” by Dr Marlon le Roux & Dr Ethel Phiri

All the conference sessions and presentations were recorded and are available on the SoTL Conference MS Teams Platform. Also visit the conference website at http://www0.sun.ac.za/sotl/ for more information about the rest of the conference programme and to access abstracts from all the presentations.