Promating global competencies at institutions of higher education: The use of Facebook in collaborative learning for postgraduate students, A case study of the University of Namibia and William Paterson University, New Jersey

In the 21st century, institutions of higher education are required to broaden their curricula to equip students with global competency skills. The 2014/2015 academic year marked a collaboration project between postgraduate students from the University of Namibia and the William Paterson University in New Jersey in the Educational Technology module using the Facebook web page to promote global competency skills among students. This study ought to understand the University of Namibia postgraduate’s students, lecturer and the lecturer from William Paterson University ‘perceptions on the use of Facebook as a platform for international collaborative learning. The study determines whether the collaborative project promotes global competency skills among students or not. This qualitative study is anchored in a multiple case design. The purposive and convenience sampling methods were used to select the participants. Interview guides and field notes were used to collect data from UNAM postgraduate students and both University of Namibia and William Paterson University lecturers who participated in the collaborative learning project. The activities from the Facebook web page were also analysed. Significantly, the six sets of knowledge from the TPACK framework were the lens through in which the study was observed. The results showed that students were able to complete the international collaborative learning tasks successfully despite several challenges experienced. The study further confirmed that the project enhanced students’ global competency skills such as problem-solving skills, innovative and critical thinking, team work, and working with peers from different backgrounds. It was also found that students had learned new concepts of the subject matter as well as technological instructional strategies. Therefore, teachers should be prepared for global learning so that they would be able to implement the global competency skills in a K-12 environment. Global competency skills are key elements in developing the 21st century. Developing policies and curricula focussed on internationalisation of higher education and preparing the essential conditions for the appropriate technology tools are recommendations going forward for any higher education institution.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Namibia

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Kashimba, Julia Lettie

• global competencies
• Collaborative learning

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11070/2509

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.unam.edu.na:11070/2509