[THREAD] As a University lecturer having to teach online during COVID-19, I will be the first to admit the increase in workload and time this takes. But there are key factors that we need to acknowledge, especially in light of students asking for a reduction in tuition fees.

Firstly, a bit of a preamble (bear with me). We have to recognize that face-to-face universities are not equipped to handle learning and teaching online. We are not trained to do so. There are little/no support structures in place for this as it is not within our mandate.

In light of this, the move online has been dubbed “remote emergency online learning & teaching”. It is to acknowledge that this was not planned, and that this is not in fact an online learning experience, where learning & teaching, curriculum, and assessment need to be DESIGNED.

This design usually takes at least a year in advance to plan, test, amend, and retest. Face-to-face universities worldwide had mere weeks to do this. Now let’s talk about South African universities. Lecturers are not required to have formal training in teaching and learning.

So they do not need a postgraduate qualification (diploma or otherwise) that demonstrates a conceptual understanding of pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. Bear in mind that I’m still referring to face-to-face teaching & learning. So we do not have this foundation as a basis.

Online learning involves its own unique pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. So not only are lecturers not equipped to do this for face-to-face, they do not have this as a basis to know how this translates for online learning either.

So lecturers are having to curate online learning material, assessment, discussion forums, feedback, etc all on their own and with very little/no experience in doing so. There are no teams behind this. It’s usually just one person. Let me now pivot to the issue of tuition fees:

Lecturers are paid by the university with money subsidized from government, and other sources. So they are responsible for paying academics their worth, or even more due to the increased workload (but that is a separate matter). What I want to address is the conflation of issues:

Students asking unis to reduce tuition fees is not a direct response or attack on lecturers, or a trivialization of their workload or efforts. That it is being read in that way by some in higher-ed speaks to the centering of the lecturer in this conversation, and not the student.

Students are NOT getting what they usually pay for: they are not getting access to face-to-face lectures, labs or tutorials. They do not have access to resources like dedicated labs or libraries. They do not have access to physical course material or textbooks. And so much more.

Anyone arguing otherwise is being disingenuous. And if you can realize this, then you can realize that the request for a reduction of fees is not unreasonable or opportune. Whatever we are doing online does not replace this loss in terms of cost and expense to the student.

Students have paid for a face-to-face experience at a university. They did not enroll for an online course or distance learning. You can compare the fees between these three and check. They are not the same. Simply put, students are not getting their money’s worth. No question.

I find it interesting that lecturers took this as a personal attack on their own efforts, instead of an overall critique of the commodification of higher education that still limits access. It also brings into question their support for fee-free education.

If we, lecturers and students, cannot see and realize that this exploitation (financial, time, and otherwise) is at the hands of structures and institutions who are dictating and mandating what is happening, then we will not gain any traction in this fight.