On 14 July 2017, the College of Human Sciences hosted Havard University student Obasi Shaw at an inter-departmental lecture organised by the Department of English Studies in collaboration with the Digital Teaching Laboratory (DTL) in the Department of Communication Science. The two Unisa departments partnered with non-governmental organisation, Hear My Voice and brought this exciting lecture by Shaw in which he explained and recited his academic journey.

In May this year Shaw made academic history by presenting a 10-track rap album, entitled Liminal Minds as his final thesis at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude minus. He said that the album is a contemporary reception of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales; however, rather than being told in the traditional 14th century poetics, he chose to relate these tales to black identity in the USA.

This lecture marked the first live broadcast seminar from Unisa’s DTL. The Laboratory was established by the Department of Communication Sciences to simplify and bridge the gap between lecturers and students particularly in an open distance learning institution such as Unisa.

Since it was launched various units within the university have used this innovative platform to provide an interactive virtual experience to students and it has to date yielded great results according to the feedback. Professor Danie du Plessis said that with this DTL platform, there are great creative opportunities still to be explored.

For guests to fully interact during such a virtual event, they had to follow the pre-event instructions of ensuring that they have Google Chrome, video plug-in and Google Voice uploaded on their devices and just follow the provided link on the invitation.

“The laboratory will allow us to experiment with technologies, refine, simplify and then mainstream it to be used from ordinary offices – whilst keeping on the edge of e-learning. The idea is to enable students to have a face-to-face experience with the awareness of the technology disappearing in this relationship in accordance with a pedagogical motto of the project being face-to-face at a distance.”

Some of the people who attended a virtual presentation by Harvard University student, Obasi Shaw, using the technology of its Digital Teaching Lab. The event was hosted by the Departments of English Studies and Communication Science in the College of Human Sciences.

*By Katlego Pilane (CHS Communications and Marketing)