Fatima Makda

External markers play a crucial role in university assessment processes by providing constructive feedback to enhance students’ learning experience. We argue that markers are invaluable sources of information on improving the quality of module content in higher education institutions (HEIs). We highlight the paucity of research on critical key roleplayers in assessment. This study investigated how external markers could be leveraged as resources for continuous module improvement. External markers and academic staff from the College of Education at an ODeL HEI in South Africa were selected purposively. Data were gathered using a convergent-parallel methodology, an online questionnaire, and closed-ended and open-ended questions. The findings suggest that external markers can make significant contributions to enhancing higher education modules. However, our research confirms that markers are underutilised as sources of information for improving module quality. These insights could ignite meaningful discussions among academics and practitioners about optimising markers to enhance educational offerings.

Higher education institutions have been confronted with an epidemic-driven shift to virtual teaching and online learning, and this poses a challenge to sustaining equality in education. Consequently, higher education institutions must be innovative and develop a contingent delivery mode of instruction to ensure pedagogical efficacy to transform teaching and learning and make education more accessible to all students. Given the realities of the exponential growth of students wanting to further their education, the pedagogical efficacy of digital modalities is not enough if the complex, wicked problem of digital equity is not addressed. Thus, there is a need for new ecologies of learning to enable higher education institutions to move beyond the brick-and-mortar. Through educational equity and the community of inquiry lens, we explored the different modes of instructional delivery, such as blended, hybrid, and online learning, with the aim of generating insightful and meaningful data on the various modes of instructional delivery. This article aims to present an understanding of the epidemic-driven shift to virtual teaching and online learning and demonstrate the value of implementing virtual teaching and online learning in an unequal and resource-constrained society to contribute towards digital inclusion and equitable access. An intra-method mixing approach was adopted. Thematic analysis was used to examine the descriptive responses to the open-ended questions, and simple descriptive statistics was used to analyse the numerical data of the close-ended question. Our findings identified elements of teaching presence, learner presence, social presence, cognitive presence, material equity, digital equity, and digital capital as contributing factors to the choice of the different modes (blended, hybrid, and online learning) of instructional delivery in an unequal society.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an abrupt shift to remote learning, which exacerbated existing inequities for disadvantaged students owing to limited internet connectivity, inadequate access to devices, and a less conducive learning environment at home. In this context, accessible digital platforms like WhatsApp became vital for maintaining educational continuity. This bibliometric review systematically analysed scholarly literature from the Scopus database to explore the use of WhatsApp as a pedagogical tool across all educational levels during the pandemic. The objective was to map global research trends, geographical distribution, and thematic clusters. After applying specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, the review analysed 234 articles published between 2019 and 2024. VOSviewer was used to visualise metrics including yearly publication counts, geographical contributions, and keyword co-occurrence networks. The findings highlight WhatsApp’s diverse use in facilitating interactivity and dialogic teaching, which is characterised by five core principles: collective, reciprocal, supportive, cumulative, and purposeful learning. This article provides valuable insights into leveraging accessible technology to enhance educational outcomes, dialogue and interactivity, specifically benefiting educators, policy makers, and curriculum developers in the post-pandemic era.

External markers play a crucial role in university assessment processes, particularly by providing students with constructive feedback to enhance their learning experience. In this paper, we argue that markers are invaluable sources of information and input on improving the quality of module content in higher education institutions (HEIs), particularly in the ODeL environment. We also highlight the paucity of research on the critical key role players in assessment within HEIs.This study investigated how these external markers could be leveraged as resources for continuous module improvement at an open distance e-learning (ODeL) higher education institution (HEI) in South Africa. External markers and academic staff from the university's College of Education were selected using purposive sampling. Data was gathered through a convergent-parallel methodology, employing an online questionnaire with Likert-type scales and closed-ended and open-ended questions. The findings suggest that external markers, beyond their marking duties, can significantly contribute to evaluating and enhancing higher education modules and content. However, our research confirms that markers are often underutilised as valuable sources of information and feedback for improving module quality. These insights could ignite meaningful discussions among academics and practitioners in HEIs about optimising markers to enhance educational offerings.