THE UNIVERSITY OF WITWATERSRAND
lockdown and on the other side , I had this huge project , which I worked with alongside AWS . We were able to put everything on the cloud on time , which was very critical .”
It was essential that Mpofu adopted these cloud technologies due to electrical shortages and cutouts in South Africa which had the potential to cause big problems for Mpofu and his team .
These shortages can result in both staff and students losing files . A particular concern as the university has adopted a blended learning strategy . This risk is reduced with the introduction of cloud platforms for storing data and files .
“ I ' m sure in the next 50 years universities are not going to be the same ”
DR STANLEY MPOFU CIO , UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND
Working with Instructure for a streamlined learning experience Highlighting the busy , ever-changing aspect of Mpofu ’ s role is yet another example of how technology has enabled the university to become more digitalised . Wits sought the help of software company , Instructure , which has developed the online learning management system , Canvas .
“ We were working with academics to find the ideal learning management system for the future because the university had so many different models and we wanted one learning management system ,” said Mpofu .
“ A committee was set up and we came up with the solution that we should go for Canvas . We were able to roll out the system at the start of this year before the students started ,” he continued .
Happy with the software provided , Mpofu explained that the team were always quick to respond to any issues the University had with Canvas : “ With IT , it ' s the speed of delivery that is critical because when something is not working , it can affect quite a lot of things down the line .”
324 November 2021