Message from the Head of School
- Professor David Everatt
Dear WSG student Wits is proud to re-open on Monday, 20 April 2020, with every course going online.
Wits is proud to re-open on Monday, 20 April 2020, with every course going online. This has been a terrible time globally and nationally, with the worst likely to hit us in the winter, and Wits has worked tirelessly to get ahead of 网易体育, and make sure it does not force any student to lose a module, let alone an academic year.
It is of course a time of “learning by doing”. We will make mistakes, which are inevitable. The technology will let us down, we know that is inevitable! We may under- or over-estimate your willingness to sit in front of a screen, or your ability to find a quiet space to download, listen, ingest, understand, write assignments and write exams. We have sought to factor all of these into our planning, so Block Release students will notice that we are stretching your normally very tight schedule into something that looks more like the 8 weeks a Part Time student would take – precisely to accommodate electricity loss, techno-wobble and all the other things we have not thought of. We are not going to insist that every rule must be followed to the letter – though the basic rules of the University, its timetable, the form of assessment and the role of external examiners and all the quality assurances remain in place, so that this years’ Wits degree is as valuable as any other year.
And in this we rely on you. If you do not talk to us – by phone, email, Skype, Zoom, Teams or any of the massive range of mechanisms out there – we won’t know of your case, your issue, your unhappiness – or even your happiness! You may have poor connectivity, and need more time to download a lecture before you can have a live Q&A with us – tell us and we’ll adjust. You may have 3 kids running around the house screaming while you’re hitting an essay deadline – tell us. We may be moving too slowly and you want to get ahead – which is entirely possible – but only if you tell us. Whatever is happening, tell us – because if we don’t know, we can’t adjust and accommodate you.
I am enormously proud of all my colleagues, who 4 weeks ago were planning their normal teaching – and in 4 weeks have put in a massive effort to entirely re-tool themselves and learn about online (it is far more complex than talking over a PowerPoint, sadly); adjust our way of assessing your work, so that we take your life circumstances into account; try out different tools such as Zoom and Teams; stress test examination under lockdown (we have run a set of fully attended, entirely successful, examinations since lockdown) and in effect, entirely re-skill themselves so that we can teach and ensure your academic year and career stay on track.
I ask only that we do this together. Something will go wrong – we can safely predict that! – and please tell us, and work with us to find solutions that work for all.