https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/10497 Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:51:46 GMT 2026-08-11T10:51:46Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32835 South African Open Distance e-Learning Student: The Types, Effectiveness, and Preference of Feedback Support Letseka, Moeketsi Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32835 2024-02-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32834 The Role of UNESCO Chair on Open Distance Learning (ODL) in Advancing Innovation and Flexibility in Distance e-Learning Letseka, Moeketsi Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32834 2025-02-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32833 From Engagement to Outcomes: AI-Driven Learning Analytics in Higher Education - Insights for South Africa Letseka, Moeketsi Artificial intelligence (AI) has become central to the evolution of learning analytics (LA), transforming how higher-education institutions capture and interpret student engagement data. This narrative review synthesises research published between 2015 and 2025 to examine how AI-driven analytics link learner engagement to measurable academic outcomes, with emphasis on the South-African higher-education context. Drawing on global reviews of AI in education and emerging governance frameworks, the study highlights the shift from traditional dashboards toward deep-learning and transformer-based systems that integrate behavioural, cognitive, and affective indicators. Ethical and policy challenges, particularly around data privacy, transparency, and institutional capacity, remain significant. Grounded in UNESCO and OECD guidance and South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, the review outlines a governance-driven approach for equitable and transparent adoption of AI-enhanced learning analytics. It identifies key challenges, data fragmentation, algorithmic opacity, and limited contextual adaptation, and translates them into practical recommendations for policy, capacity building, and future research. The findings underscore that sustainable AI adoption requires human-centred ethics, robust data governance, and context-sensitive innovation to achieve inclusive and data-driven higher education. Journal article Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32833 2026-02-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32830 Rethinking openness for learning in open distance learning institutions LETSEKA, MOEKETSI The trends in open distance learning over the years and its evolution to higher education are interesting phenomena that continue to gain acceptance. While open distance learning serves as an intervening solution, initiated by most African higher institutions for students that missed out on the opportunity of studying in mainstream institutions, there is a need for her tertiary institutions to confront the challenge of making the Institutions open to meet the needs of upwardly enrolling higher education of adult students. However, this study argues that not only is this practice pedagogically unsound, but also clearly contradictory to the policy for open distance learning, for which the institutions were established in the specific context of the University of South Africa. It further highlights the rethink of the pedagogical approach by all stakeholders focusing more closely on the quality of openness in teaching and learning. It seeks guidelines for designing teaching and learning, particularly for Open Distance Learning (ODL) institutions, which only have a policy for distance and online learning and in contrast to the institutions’ agenda by creating opportunities through open distance e-learning nationally and on the African continent. The Transactional Distance Theory was adopted to underpin the study. Also, it highlights the openness in ODL and recommends different innovative ways to take the agenda of Open Distance Learning forward for optimal impact. Journal article Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/32830 2024-02-01T00:00:00Z