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COVID-19 UPDATE 21 – POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

- Wits University

Message from Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Vice-Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs.

Dear Postgraduate Students

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe. This is a difficult time for all and I hope that you remain in high spirits.

You should have received an email earlier this week pertaining to the commencement of the academic programme, which is scheduled to resume online on 20 April 2020. As postgraduate students, and particularly those conducting research at the Master’s and Doctoral levels, your course of action is slightly different. Due to the diversity of research being conducted and the great breadth and scope of the disciplines being explored, it is impossible to address postgraduates as a homogenous cohort.

I would therefore like to advise you to work directly with your supervisor during the lockdown period and beyond, in order to ensure that your research continues from wherever you may be geographically located. A number of online resources have been made available to you during this period to make it easier for you to work from where you are.

Should you have any problems or issues, please raise them with your supervisor or with your relevant Faculty Dean.

Regards

Professor Zeblon Vilakazi

Vice-Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs

3 April 2020

Resources for postgraduate Students

Access to Data and ICT Support

Wits has worked with Telkom, Vodacom and MTN to ensure that students can access selected learning sites without using data. Cell C is due to come on board shortly and all services will be activated within the next ten days. For a complete list of the zero-rated sites, visit: /mywits/zero-rated-data-to-students-and-applicants/. Please note that you must have at least R1 worth of data loaded on a SIM card in order to access these sites. If you have any queries or concerns, please contact the ICT Service Delivery team via ithelp@wits.ac.za  or call 011 7171717 or log a call via https://witshelp-ism.saasiteu.com/.

Learning Management Systems

All our Learning Management Systems (LMS) including Wits-e (Sakai) and Moodle will be hosted in the Amazon cloud to ensure that our systems have sufficient infrastructural support and are able to cope with a large number of users accessing the systems.

Access to Smart Mobile Devices

We are also aware that approximately 10% - 15 % of students may not have access to smart mobile devices (according to the results of the biographical questionnaires conducted over the last four years by our Business Intelligence Unit), and Faculties and Deans have been asked to develop a plan in this regard.

Access to Digital Library Resources

There are several resources available to students, including:

For Research and Writing Assistance, visit:

For more information, contact Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za 

Access to the Wits University Press eBook collection

In this time of unprecedented crisis, when universities are developing online teaching systems and academics are working from home, Wits University Press is joining a large number of international university presses and academic publishers in providing free access to content for students and researchers.

Links to JSTOR: https://about.jstor.org/covid19/?utm_source=jstor&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=dsp_jstor_home_right_covid19_03_2020

Link to Proquest:

https://www.proquest.com/products-services/ebooks/ebooks-main.html#whatsnewSection

The Wits University Press books at JSTOR are here: https://www.jstor.org/publisher/witsup

For more information and all updates, visit www.wits.ac.za/covid-19

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