Associate Professor Dr Eunice Ivala recently won an Award for Excellence in eLearning from the Global LearnTech (Congress and Awards).
Held in July at the Taj Lands End Hotel in Mumbai, India, the Congress honoured Ivala, who is CPUT’s Coordinator for Educational Technology: Centre for Innovative Educational Technology, for her research impact in changing individual’s practices and contribution to the field of Education.
In explaining why she was chosen by the Congress said “the position that you occupy in the fraternity is strategic and iconic. As a thinker and doer you are a role model and a believer in change”.
The Award consists of a trophy and a citation and the objective is to benchmark educational and learning practices.
CPUT did not nominate Ivala, the Congress chose her by assigning a global research cell constituted of researchers from different parts of the world to submit their own recommendations.
Ivala initially declined the invitation because it coincided with the 13th International Conference on e-Learning which she was organising as chairperson, but the Congress persisted. Her colleagues persuaded her of the importance of the Award so she left the CPUT conference in the hands of Daniela Gachago and Prof Johannes Cronje to travel to India.
“I went but my head was here, I kept on sending Daniela messages,” she remembered.
Ivala says now she is glad she went because it turned out to be an excellent networking opportunity to interact with educators from all walks of life who deal with digital education.
“It was an eye-opener to see how people go about establishing themselves in their own businesses and consult on strategies on e-Learning,” said Ivala.
This year’s Congress theme was Technology Roadmap for Education and in addition to collecting the award Ivala also delivered a talk on OERs (maybe write it out)at CPUT.
“Lots of people asked me to send them the presentation afterwards. It was interesting to see how many people are impressed by our work.
“It is a great recognition for CPUT on what we do because everything I write about is what we do here. This makes CPUT visible to the world,” said Ivala.
While she couldn’t take up the Congress’ offer to go share her work at an Indian higher education institution during this past visit, Ivala has been invited to sit on their Advisory Board for the 2019 World Education Congress and will attend their next conference.
Written by Theresa Smith