Towards Designing Modules in Higher Education for Student Success and Epistemological Access in a Hybrid Teaching and Learning Environment

Abstract

This paper argues that, since epistemological access is at the centre of research on teaching and learning process in higher education, particularly in the South African context, it is therefore important to pay attention to how a hybrid module is designed such that it caters for such access for our students. It further argues that we will be doing ourselves a great harm if such an arduous task is perceived to be the sole responsibility of the subject matter experts (academics) and instructional designers alone, as this requires collaborative contributions of academics, educational technologists, instructional designers, academic developers, and student academic advisors. The involvement of the student academic advisors in the design process is to ensure that student experiences and voices are taken into consideration during the design process. The focus of the paper is narrowed down to the role that the overview page of a hybrid module plays in enhancing epistemological access for students. Hence, dual emphasis is placed on how accessibility and usability should be ensured in the design of the overview page of a hybrid module such that it encourages epistemological access for students. To achieve this, this paper provides an instructional guide on designing the overview page of a module to cater for accessibility and usability in ensuring epistemological access for our students in a hybrid learning environment.

Keywords

• hybrid teaching and learning
• usability and accessibility
• learning management systems
• epistemological access
• higher education