Digitalised curriculum to the rescue of a higher education institution

Abstract

ABSTRACT This time of COVID-19 has compelled higher education institution (HEI) academics to embrace a digitalised curriculum in teaching, learning, and research. A digitalised curriculum is a plan for and/or a plan of teaching, learning, and research, driven by specific hardware, software, and theories. HEI leaders of teaching and learning have been unsuccessful over the years in promoting the use of various kinds of learning management systems (LMSs) with the aim of embracing a digitalised curriculum. The unsuccessful promotion of LMSs was caused by the lack of compelling situations that forced digital technology refugees to use the LMSs. In 2020, when COVID-19, which originated in China, started to affect other countries, academics desperately transformed their minds in embracing the digitalised curriculum. They started to attend any workshops on the use of digital technologies through Zoom. The findings of the study reveal that the transformation experiences of these academics were reflections, translation, rotation, enlargement, and reduction. These transformation experiences addressed the tension between a performance curriculum and a competency-based curriculum. This study explored the transformation experiences of academics at an HEI in South Africa. Zoom observations, semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions were used for data collection. A mixed method and pragmatic paradigm were used to frame this study. The study applied purposive with convenience sampling in selecting twenty participants. This study concludes by recommending the identification of values or ideologies relevant to the enactment of the digitalised curriculum that comes to the rescue of HEIs at this time of COVID-19 and beyond.