PhD year 1 students' experience with the Educational Technology and Innovation Course

The advent of information, communication and new technologies, globalisation and rising costs has prompted rethinking what we teach, how we teach and even where teaching and learning take place. The Educational Technology and Innovation Course (Adlt704) was designed to enable students to create, use and manage appropriate technological processes and resources to facilitate teaching and learning. A semi-structured interview schedule and semi-structured questionnaire instrument were used for data collection. A purposive opportunity sampling method was applied. Thematic and simple descriptive analyses were employed to interpret results. The students attested to the benefits of using technology to learn, but also faced challenges including poor internet connectivity and power fluctuations. It was concluded that educational technology contributes to a better learning outcome than face-to-face teaching and learning. Faster and cheaper internet connectivity, highly powered generators and effective student support services were some of the recommendations made.