Dr Upasana Singh

Digital technology made it possible for School of Management, Information Technology and Governanceacademic, Dr Upasana Singh to co-present with her supervisor, Unisa’s Professor Ruth de Villiers at the E-Learn World Conference on E-Learning that was recently held in Hawaii.

Singh could not attend the conference but did not want to miss the opportunity of sharing her knowledge, this led to her working with Mr Ruben Murugan of UKZN’s Corporate Relations Production Team to deliver her part of the presentation via video.

Singh and De Villiers’s presentation entitled: “e-SEAT: an electronic framework for evaluating
e-assessment systems” which was an outcome of Singh’s PhD research and introduced the interactive instrument called e-SEAT (electronically Selecting and Evaluating e-Assessment Tools). This tool supports academics to make informed choices when deciding which e-assessment system to adopt.

Singh explains how the presentation was delivered: ‘First, Prof de Villiers set the background and outlined the mixed-methods action research approach used to develop the theoretical SEAT Framework and the practical e-Seat Instrument.’

‘I then explained how empirical studies, along with concepts from literature, resulted in an innovative set of 182 evaluation criteria in 11 categories.  With programming assistance SEAT was converted to the automated and interactive e-SEAT Instrument.  e-SEAT was then evaluated, applied, refined, and validated in further studies, enhancing its content and structure.’

The attendees showed keen interest and asked insightful questions after De Villiers had concluded the presentation.

The annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the exchange of information on research, development, and applications of all topics related to e-Learning in the Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education sectors.

Thandiwe Jumo