A Capacity Building programme, jointly organised and facilitated by Professor Haupt from Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and Professor Claudia Loggia from UKZN’s School of Built Environment and Development Studies, took place in Durban from 22 to 27 July.

The Project Based Learning Bootcamp was part of a National Research Foundation’s (NRF) funded project: “Project Turning the Titanic (PTTT)” which seeks to transform Higher Education in the Built Environment by applying Problem Based Learning (PBL) pedagogies.

‘The objective of the PBL Bootcamp is to provide lecturers with the experience of “teaching” in a student-cantered and student driven way as opposed to the “sage on the stage” lecturer-cantered and driven approaches they are accustomed to,’ said Loggia. ‘Therefore, the PTTT project seeks to build capacity by providing a small cohort of learning facilitators with the skills needed to navigate this alternative approach to current pedagogical approaches’.

The Bootcamp programme provided three full workshop days to learning facilitators only, where they equipped with the skills needed to navigate alternative pedagogical approaches, such as PBL.

The second part of the Bootcamp included a two-and-half-day workshop open to both students and facilitators – where facilitators were able to test the discussed pedagogies and engage directly with nine groups of students.

Attended by 60 participants (lecturers and students) from seven South African universities namely, UKZN, Nelson Mandela University (NMU), Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT), Central University of Technology (CUT), Durban University of Technology (DUT), Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), the Bootcamp was a success.

UKZN was represented by three lecturers and nine students (undergraduates and postgraduate) from the Housing Discipline within the School of Built Environment and Development Studies.

Professor Loggia said, ‘It was a fantastic experience for the students as they were exposed to PBL pedagogical approaches and got to work collaboratively on complex projects over three days with other students. It was also an informative and immersive experience for lecturers who were trained to become “facilitators of learning” and tested valuable pedagogical strategies that could be incorporated in their respective modules’.

The Dean and Head of School of Built Environment and Development Studies, Professor Ernest Khalema, said: ‘Such experiences are very valuable for students in their learning. The Housing Development discipline is doing all it can to expose students to the world of practice and community engagement as part of their learning experience.’