NATP
Faculty of the Humanities
Status REPORT
2014
Report compiled by
Tibi Mohapi
1|Page
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The NATP has come a long way since its inception in 2007.
The overall growth in numbers of trained tutors as well as students who are part of the
program is one indicator of the success the NATP has achieved.
With the new branding as A_STEP for Humanities, we have changed the structure of student
support in the Humanities to grow parallel with the NAT, now A_STEP.
A new vision for the success of students in the Humanities relies on interventions such the
NATP or A_STEP and will require a team in the Humanities to facilitate and assist the
Teaching and Learning Coordinator/ manger with objectives for the Faculty.
The start of 2015 will see A_STEP for Humanities working hard to achieve a more centralized
system of support.
The physical creation of a work space centred on support is important and has been
achieved by creating shared space with the Academic Facilitation Session Program for
Extended Program students (AFS); the NATP/A_STEP and the Teaching and Learning
Manager.
The support for tutorials via A_STEP will also see a new pilot initiated in 2015 where we will
put together skills from AFS and NATP and manage the facilitation spaces as a team.
The New Year looks very exciting with the backdrop of the hard work delivered in 2014.
A_STEP - moving our students forward.
2|Page
Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... 4
Appendices ......................................................................................................................... 4
1.
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 5
2.
NATP structure and development .................................................................................. 6
3.
Faculties .......................................................................................................................... 6
4.
Tutor recruitment, selection and development ............................................................. 9
5.
Students ........................................................................................................................ 10
6.
Research Methodology ................................................................................................. 15
6.1.
Research question ................................................................................................. 10
6.2.
Data collection ...................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.10
6.3.
Data analysis ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.10
6.4.
Ethical Considerations .......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.15
6.5.
Findings .................................................................................................................. 18
7.
Logistics ....................................................................................................................... 199
8.
Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 199
9.
Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 221
Appendix I ........................................................................................................................ 23
Appendix II ........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Appendix III ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.25
Appendix IV...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.26
Appendix V....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.27
Appendix VI...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.28
GLOSSARY ............................................................................................................................. 24
3|Page
LIST OF FIGURES
Appendices
(I)
(II)
(III)
(IV)
(V)
(VI)
Humanities Database 2014
Weekly Attendance registers submission
UV_CTL_TUTOR_Humanities Attendance.xls
Observation and Evaluation Data
Tutor job description and contract
Timeslots
4|Page
1. Introduction
(Definition of NATP and Aims, platforms for learning – CBB and sessions, faculties, tutors,
modules (BFN, QQ, South))
The New Academic Tutor Program (NATP) was established in July 2007 with 55 tutors in two
faculties. The development of the programme was focused on creating an innovative
academic support network for students. The NATP is characterised by centralised training,
based on Supplemental Instruction (SI) principles, but is contextualised to meet the unique
needs of the UFS and can therefore be considered a hybrid model (CTL:2014).
The coordination of the programme in the Humanities is handled by Tibi Mohapi who has
been the coordinator for tutorials since its inception in 2007.
Tibi received assistance from Ms Gali Malebo and Ms Margarette van Wyk where
attendance capturing and evaluation and observation are concerned.
The main vision in the Faculty is focused on

Thorough Tutor Training through the integration of skills and making use of practical
experiences as well as academic advising and Assessment development;

Assisting tutors in the support they provide to students in achieving optimal success
in modules through tutorial interventions;

To bring in skilled tutors from past years in training a new generation of tutors;

To blend the current NATP and AFS programs in creating one program for the
Humanities (now coined A_STEP for Humanities) which will be implemented across 4
Departments on first year level in 2015.
One of the NATP’s aims includes providing students an opportunity to receive feedback on
their understanding of the work handled in class and tutorials. Tutors therefore play a
specific role in disseminating information and being a channel of communication with the
Department and lecturer. Weekly meetings allow the tutor and lecture to sit down and
collaborate on work that needs attention. However the main highlight is that the NATP in
Humanities has allowed tutors to prepare tutorials according to the group of 25 students
they are working with, therefore each tutorial group has its unique identity and agenda.
5|Page
2. NATP and Student Support structure in my faculty
The NATP is part of a focus area known as Student Learning and Development (SLD) which is
part of CTL (NATP: 2014)
The support received from SLD is immense in the smooth operation of tutorials.
The
role
played
by
SLD includes training of tutors; the research done involves collaboration with faculties to
respond and return information from tutorials to SLD in the form of evaluations,
observations, training and general planning.
The enhancement of personal development is something that is a benefit to all staff
members and I am to take full advantage of the professional development provided at CTL
in 2015. In 2015 I completed an Nvivo and Advanced SI training as well as Blackboard
training.
3. Faculties (Departments/Schools/Centres that form part of tutorials)
The NATP is currently involved in six (6) faculties: Economic and Management Sciences
(EMS); Education (EDU); Health Sciences (HS); Humanities (HUM) and Law. (NATP: 2014)
The Humanities is quite represented in the Residence Tutorial Program as well as tutorials
designed for the Unit for Students with Disabilities where we have a small group of tutors
who have similar modules in the USD which they tutor at mainstream level. I am proud to
also say quite a large number of tutors are part of CTL structures in general.
6|Page
In 2014 there were 49 modules that were part of the NATP in both semesters (Humanities
NATP Database).
ANT114/124 GBT214/224 LIN214
SSO212
BKO134
GRK114/124 PSY212
SSO232
DTS114
GRK214/224 PSY124
TPP114
ENG114/124 HEB114/124 PSY224
TPP144
ENG214/224 HEB214/224 PTW114
WYS214
ENG314/324 KGK104
PTW124
FRN114/124 KOM124
PTW144
FRN214/224 LAT214/224 SOS114
FRN314/324 LAT108
SSO112
GBT114/124 LIN114
SSO132
7|Page
Role-players per department:
School/department/
Person Responsible
Position in Faculty/ Department
centre
Anthropology
Mr Joe Serekoane
Lecturer ANT114/124
Communications
Mrs Marisa van den Berg
Lecturer BKO134
Mrs Jamie Nortjie
Lecturer KOM124
German
Ms Lorraine Bester
Lecturer DTS114
English
Mrs Patsy Fourie
Departmental
Ms Candice Reynolds
(logistics)
Prof Helene Strauss
Head Assistant: marks division
Ms Manuela Lovisa
HOD and lecturer ENG314/324
Dr Mariza Brooks
Lecturer ENG114/124
Dr Thinus Conradie
Lecturer ENG214/224/314/324
Secretary
Lecturer English Second and
Third year; advisory role
French
Mrs Tanja Nel
Lecturer FRN First till third year
Ms Isabel Mostert
Departmental
Assistant
(logistics)
Greek
Mrs Anneli Machin
Lecturer Greek
Hebrews
Prof Cynthia Miller-Naude
Lecturer Hebrews
History of Art
Me Johanet Kriel
Lecturer KGK104
Latin
Prof
Lecturer LAT108
Linguistics and Language Dr Munene Mwaniki
Lecturer LIN114
Practice
Prof du Plessis
Lecturer TPP144
Me Marlie van Rooyen
Lecturer TPP114
Dr Florence Tadi
Lecturer PSY224
Mr Henry Taylor
Lecturer PSY212/124
Mr Ambrose du Plessis
Lecturer PTW114
Psychology
Political Science
8|Page
South
African
Language
Sesotho
Me Choane
Lecturer PTW124
Dr Amtaika
Lecturer PTW144
Sign Dr Philemon Akach
HOD and lecturer
Me Emily Matabane
Lecturer
Beverley Wilcock
Departmental tutor
Dr Sarah Motsei
Lecturers
Ntate Bahedile Letlala
Philosophy
Mr Johann Roussouw
Lecturers
Prof Pieter Duvenhage
4. Tutor recruitment, selection and interviewing
Each year we have new tutors who are appointed. The application process starts mostly
with lecturers recruiting tutors or adverts at Faculty level being produced. Tutors then apply
with the coordinator or via the lecturer.
There were at least 10 applications received at the end of 2013. The rest of the applications
were handled at Department level. Interviews also took place at Department level.
According to our database 47 new tutors were appointed and trained. Most of these tutors
also featured in the second semester. We only had few returning tutors from 2012 who had
already been trained with basic NATP training (appendix I).
9|Page
Comment [EM1]: How many
applications were received, how many new
tutors were appointed for each module,
how many candidates were interviewed
5. Tutor training and development
Training of tutors in the Faculty took place in the beginning of the year. There were however
three tutors who had to be trained on a one on one basis as they were appointed at a late
stage in the semester – two of them had gone through pure SI training with Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University (NMMU).
There were two opportunities this year where we had refresher sessions and only a third of
tutors attended the sessions “Fresher Fridays”. At the two sessions we looked at the tutor
portfolio and payment structure and attendance capturing.
Tutor training in 2015 will be different. We will have compulsory training of new facilitators
to our pilot on 23 and 24 January 2015 and we will have old returning tutors trained on 30
January 2014.
We would very much like for our new tutors in the Faculty to attend the mass training –
these are tutors who will not be involved in the pilot project where AFS and ASTEP combine.
Training will be done in collaboration with the CTL ASTEP team. Academic Advising and
Blackboard are also part of our training in 2015.
6. Students
Attendance
Attendance of tutorials was submitted on Oracle (Appendix III) with the help of Faculty
Comment [EM2]: Does your faculty
give any incentives for tutorial attendance
in the different modules? Please mention
in which modules
members Ms Margarette van Wyk and Ms Gale Malebo who were instrumental in the
Comment [EM3]: Use attendance stats
of Oracle
uploading of registers on a daily basis.
We had insisted that tutors submit on a daily basis so as to process registers in time for
payments. The creation of a submission document (Appendix II) was a relief as it really
allowed us to keep track every day of submissions.
10 | P a g e
Anthropology:
Attendance was poor. Tutors were exhausted as the 4 of them had to also tutor Academic
Facilitation Sessions and I believe this is one of the main causes to the determination and
motivation of students to attend. We should acquire more tutors in future for tutorials and
separate tutors for the AFS sessions.
Sociology:
The attendance in some modules such as SOS was really poor and tutors had to really be
pushed to email students; report back to the lecturer and no real feedback about the
process was recorded. It was mostly on adhoc. We await examination results to see whether
students didn’t attend because they knew their attendance wouldn’t count marks.
English:
The English Department had the earliest sessions at First year level where tutorials took
place at 07:00 – 08:00 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
The attendance captured on Oracle shows a very good attendance as the mark allocation or
activities done in tutorials constituted 30% of the semester mark. We had a real change in
attitude this year where students made arrangements accordingly to be excused from class
where they were in hospital and away from other academic reasons and we then allowed
tutors to assist the students at a different time.
English on second year level also shows a good attendance rate. Students also earned 30%
for activities done in tutorials. We had only three tutors in this module and they have
outdone themselves in the management of the second year tutorial portfolio.
At Third year level, we only had two senior tutors who worked tremendously hard and did a
stunning job with keeping tutorials going every week. Attendance was also satisfactory at
third year tutorials.
A mark of 30% was attached to tutorial activities in the modules at third year level.
11 | P a g e
In comparison to the Qwaqwa Oracle results, I am pleased with attendance at both
campuses. It seems the drive behind attendance is the 30% mark allocation to activities
done in tutorials and the fact that English literature is a difficult module and therefore
students optimized the support given. We had students requesting assistance with the
Linguistics part of the module however the lecturer was not part of the initiative to train
tutors in this aspect.
The collaboration of the Qwaqwa and Bloemfontein campus lecturing staff under the
leadership of Prof Helene Strauss was tremendously appreciated and it bore fruits which we
couldn’t have had if she didn’t intervene. The coordinator was also present at the English
Department staff meetings where feedback and developments in the tutorial setup were
considered. This brought light to better facilitated tutorial sessions.
In preparing tutors for the copious amount of work they handled in each semester we
provided assessment development training led by the Faculty Teaching and Learning
Manager. We duplicated the same training to the English and Sociology and Political
Sciences Departments on our Qwaqwa campus.
South African Sign Language:
Tutorials are compulsory in the modules in this Department. Tutors were also expected to
attend the lectures so as to fill any gaps present. The SASL modules are quite demanding on
students who had to attend at least 3 lectures a week and a tutorial. I am satisfied with the
attendance. These tutorials had a mark allocation of 10%.for activities done in tutorials.
Greek:
This Division had one of the highest attendance rates considering the low number of
registered students. The lecturer is very hands on and this made it quite easy for tutors to
execute work. The special set up in this module was the sharing of work in tutorials where
two tutors were appointed to work on one group together. The results are phenomenal as
the pass rate is very good. I am pleased with the collaboration received from Greek.
Hebrews:
12 | P a g e
The Hebrews modules also had a low registration rate and good attendance was recorded as
well.
Political Sciences:
There was a mark allocation of 10% to activities done in tutorials. Mr Ambrose du Plessis
(PTW114) was a tutor in the NATP and therefore this proves how well he has adjusted his
teaching o include elements of Supplemental instruction and or blended learning. This
module had students in the AFS programme as well.
Tutorials were also scheduled on a Friday for both semesters thus leaving students no
option in timetable however this also assisted with logistics as no other clashes were
experienced by the students.
Experience shows a significant change in attitude towards studies and preparedness for
tutorials.
Tutorials in this module also went through a workshop on assessment development in
preparation for their roles.
Communications:
The modules, BKO134 and KOM124 did not have any mark allocation for activities done in
tutorials. The attendance was not the best. The tutors could have done more to encourage
participation. The tutors were all Honoures students in the Department.
Latin:
The attendance in Latin was good due to low student registration numbers.
This is one of the faith based modules (including Hebrews and Greek) and you find the same
cohort of students registered for all there modules indicating the general attitude towards
tutorials is very good.
13 | P a g e
History of art:
There was no mark allocation for tutorials or activities done in tutorials.
Low student registration numbers indicated an average attendance rate.
Linguistics:
Students in this group are also students found in some of the Language modules such as
English and Greek and they seem to have a good attitude and good lecturer support at
Department level. Tutorials were easy to organize with two dedicated tutors.
There was no mark allocation in this module.
Psychology:
This is one of our largest tutorial groups. We had postgraduate tutors tutoring the second
and first year students.
Attendance didn’t count any marks however the lecturers used attendance as an indicator
for decision making purposes.
Students were placed in groups of 30 instead of 25.
There were no tutorials during test week (the week Psychology modules were written) as in
the past we had found that the sessions did not materialize.
Sesotho:
The modules presented in NATP were for non-mother tongue speakers and attendance was
average.
No mark allocation for tutorials was in place. This group comprised mainly of students from
our Education Faculty.
Of all the twelve (12) departments in the first semester, English had the best attendance
rate. The tutors were engaged and kept quite busy.
14 | P a g e
Evaluations and Observations
Regular evaluation of tutors from the perspective of the students is seen as critical in
ensuring that we achieve our goal of continued improvement and critical self-reflection
(NATP: 2013).
The team for observations and evaluations included the Coordinator, Ms van Wyk and Ms
Malebo who were instrumental in the success of evaluations.
There was one tutor who did not get evaluated due to timetable changes and unforeseen
circumstances.
All evaluation data was sent to CTL as it came in and most of the tutors received feedback
after the sessions or when they came to the coordinators office. Most of the tutors used
evaluation feedback as part of their overall feedback for their portfolios.
Basic database on the result see Appendix IV.
The ethical considerations:
Students are well informed about the need for support through use of tutorials, the lecturer
and Department have consented to be art of the program with the big picture being on the
success and throughput rate. Students have clear guidelines as to which channels to follow
in case of that need.
15 | P a g e
Progress of tutorials in my faculty
In 2014, the Faculty of the Humanities had a total of …modules in the programme.
Modules such in the Department of English and Political Science had a mark allocation of
10% or 30% respectively and therefore have a significant impact on general attendance but
also noted one can see a significant mark correlation with attendance.
Some of the modules, for example modules in Communications Science as well as South
African Sign language had additional lecture and/or practical times which also carried a
mark allocation
He earlier than 08:00 time slots are being reviewed for example at first year English
tutorials, where a lot of students were either from he Faculty of Education or were part of
Occasional studies and therefore found it difficult to attend 100% of their tutorials.
A tutor being overloaded is also a factor which should be looked at in preparation for 2015.
The English Department is thus opting to enquire about hiring of teaching assistant in the
Department. Other Departments such as Psychology will have to increase the number of
tutors hired for their big modules.
Tutors need to be sufficiently prepared, as emphasized by the job contract and description
for tutors. Not preparing would be breach of contract (Appendix V).
The quality of tutors relies heavily of the preparedness of tutors.
We required tutors to communicate at least once every two weeks with the coordinator on
how they are progressing in terms of preparation. Therefore tutors would send short
descriptive emails on their preparation. See below Juanita de Roubaix preparation email.
16 | P a g e
17 | P a g e
Humanities
Attendance vs. Performance
80.00
70.00
FINAL MARK (%)
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
ENG114
ENG214
GBT114
PSY212
PTW114
BKO134
No attendance (Group1)
45.22
37.94
31.50
48.76
40.00
65.26
FRN114
5.00
1 to 4 (Group 2)
57.22
55.22
53.33
55.05
51.92
57.98
46.91
5 or more (Group 3)
62.70
59.27
71.57
63.83
59.20
64.37
53.42
Figure 1 (NATP 2013) shows the significant positive correlation between tutorial
attendance and academic achievement in the Faculty of Humanities.
Activities completed in the tutorial sessions account for 10% - 30% of the semester mark of
the modules displayed in figure 1 except PSY212. Tutorials fall under the Faculty of the
Humanities' adherence to the 100% class attendance rule - this translates to all lecture
attendance, tutorial attendance, tests and assignments to be compulsory". Students are
actively involved in these sessions through discussion, questions or even presentations. This
affords the students an opportunity to reflect on their learning with help from their peers
and improve their grades (NATP:2013)
It is therefore highly recommended that students attend at least 80% of tutorials to ensure
the kickbacks associated with sharing information with other students, critically thinking and
applying one’s mind as well as receiving any relevant information to the UFS and to the
module.
18 | P a g e
1. Logistics
Marketing of programme was done via departments where lecturers would be involved in
spreading the NATP word; tutors would often also explain to students why they are
tutoring. The NATP was also present at Faculty Board Meetings. The Teaching and learning
manager has also made tutorial support top of her priorities.
Below is a short description to show how many hours of tutorials we had in the second
semester of 2014 for ENG124; ANT124 and KOM124 as examples (appendix IV follows).
ANT124:11 hours of tutorials every week with 4 tutors who also facilitated the AFS support
classes.
ENG124: 24 hours of tutorials every week with sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays
KOM124: 16 hours of tutorials every week with 2 tutors.
We had at least 2 meetings as an entire Faculty and the rest were individual meetings with
the coordinator and Departmental meetings of which coordinator attended at least one
meeting per semester in each department.
Payment went very smoothly considering the years before. I feel better being a bigger part
of the processing of payments and capturing data.
The last payment November 2014 didn’t happen and I am afraid this affects the perception
departments and tutors have of the program.
2. Recommendations
Challenges (structure-faculty support and buy-in, venues/timetable, academic culture in
residences, short academic year, low attendance)
Some of the challenges that took place in the second semester of 2014 included the nonpayment of tutors in November. I believe this put a big dampener on thing how we are
perceived.
I saw a few overloaded tutors who tried their best to accommodate the situation.
19 | P a g e
Tutor weren’t told exactly what to expect such as in the English Department where tutors
marked way too much work and should have received proper compensation.
Timetable clashes were a problem for some students. The Humanities has reviewed their
first year modules so that there is no clash in 2015 as far as possible. It is therefore a
recommendation that coordinators and teaching and learning managers sit together to
ensure no clashes at each year level for students and to start looking at logistics from a
Faculty perspective – for example in English we know we have Faculty of Education students
– it is therefore advisable to cross collaborate with the Faculty of Education in making
timetable decisions as they will directly affect that cohort f students.
There was definitely low class attendance during the first and last week of semester as well
as in test week. One would probably have to ensure that the message is received by all
students to cancel tutorials in these weeks.
Residences could also be an alternative in marketing the program, making sure that
Residence Committees communicate tutorial attendance as important in house meetings
and via posters in residential spaces.
Coordinators should be encouraged to further their studies as I hope to do.
New Initiatives in my faculty during 2014 and planned for 2015
A_STEP for Humanities is an initiative which includes four (4) Departments collaborating
with the Faculty to provide tutorial support based on the research done at NATP and AFS
levels.
We will be piloting tutorial support for students in Political Sciences; Anthropology,
Sociology and English.
The changes evident will be the appointment of teaching assistants in the English
Department and we have slightly moved from appointing tutors who are currently
registered to outsourcing of skills needed in the Department of English. The appointment
will be 15 hours a week where we hope these skilled tutors (TA’s) will have a bigger function
in tutorial support.
20 | P a g e
We hope to train tutors in additional topics such as under preparedness which will be
presented by Mr Joe Serekoane of the Anthropology Department. We will also include
aspects in Academic Writing which will be presented by Prof Arlys van Wyk f the write Site.
Other topics include Academic Advise, Blackboard and Graphic organization in collaboration
with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural
Sciences. All tutors will still undergo.
The collaboration of AFS and the NATP will hopefully be a successful endeavour as some of
the elements in training and logistics can be shared instead of duplicated.
The physical move of office space to create a Teaching and learning centred approach to
assisting lecturers and students sees the Teaching and Learning Manager, Jackie Storer,
Faculty assistants and Coordinators of AFS and NATP sharing space for better synchronicity.
3. Conclusions
The aim of tutorials is to support students and lecturers and increase4 of the success and
throughput rate, we hope that tutorials are the future of teaching and learning. In addition,
we hope that critical thinking skills are being honed into our future academics in the Faculty
of the Humanities.
The responsibility of each Faculty to produce young academics is a big responsibilities
shared with Departments.
Our students are also starting to take responsibility where their academics come to play in
that we see better liaison at Faculty level from students about their academics. Students are
making arrangements in advance where they miss lectures and tutorials. Students are also
interested in tutoring as part of their skills development in preparation for the work
environment therefore they are becoming employable.
Having seen the possibilities tutoring offers we have students informally getting together
and discussing their academics even outside of the tutorial therefore collaboration at
undergraduate level is becoming popular.
21 | P a g e
Students do not always know what skills and talents they possess to be involved in the
academia and the NATP has been one such platform where students are given the
opportunity to be part of teaching and learning in the Faculty of the Humanities.
It is therefore proof enough that attendance and academic performance are related in more
ways than just one. The encouragement of tutorial attendance will continue beyond 2014
with Department and Faculty support.
22 | P a g e
Appendix I
(Some sections have been removed for purposes of this report)
23 | P a g e
Appendix I I
(Some sections have been edited for purposes of this report)
This is an edited PDF version below serves as an example of what the data looks like on
Oracle. Full report will be attached to the email for the recipients.
24 | P a g e
Appendix III
The document has been edited for purposes of this report. The page count is 103 –
therefore – a bit too long. Therefore the figure reported 4657 for the total hours presented
is quite evidence of tutorial attendance capturing. Edited PDF version below serves as an
example of what the data looks like on Oracle. Full report will be attached to the email for
the recipients.
25 | P a g e
Appendix IV Observation and Evaluation data
This is an edited version.
26 | P a g e
Appendix V Tutor Job description and contract
This is an edited version.
27 | P a g e
Appendix VI
Tutorial Timeslots (an edited version)
28 | P a g e
GLOSSARY
AA: Academic Advising
CTL: Centre for Teaching and Learning
EMS: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences
EDU: Faculty of Education
F2F: Face-to-face tutorials
HUM: Faculty of the Humanities
HS: Faculty of Health Sciences
ICT: Information and Communication Technology Services
NAS: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
NATP: New Academic Tutorial Programme
Online: Online tutorials
SLD: Student Learning and Development
SPSS: Statistical Programme for Social Sciences
USD: Unit for students with disabilities
RTP: Residence Tutorial Programme
TA: Teaching Assistant
29 | P a g e