Faculty experiencing first-line implementation of Technology Enhanced Learning

Abstract

Higher education is entering an interesting period of change. Faculty and students will have to adapt to a more technologically enhanced environment for teaching and learning. Adopting new pedagogy can place a critical responsibility on faculty. This article evaluates members of a small faculty’s experience of the implementation of laptops as part of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) at a residential higher education institute (HEI) in South Africa. The study population comprised 36 first year Humanities students, the Faculty Dean, and seven lecturers of the first year modules. Data collected through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and an open ended questionnaire were captured in an integrated dataset using Atlas.ti^TM. Coding and categorization focused on the requirements of TEL in the faculty and the researcher derived at two themes: (i) Demands of TEL and (ii) initiation characteristics.