As more South Africans connect to the Internet and become tech-savvy, higher learning institutions are required to accommodate the needs of students in this context.
A recent Statistics SA report, which examines the number of households that connected to the Internet from January to December 2016, revealed an uptick in connections in the country.
The report found 59.3% of South African households had at least one member who used the Internet at home, their place of work or study, or at Internet caf'es.
This rise in the country's Internet access requires universities to cater to the needs of a digital-age brain. The 21st century brain is fast-moving and intimately connected to digital technology.
According to Stefan du Plessis, commercial director at Eiffel Corp, students expect learning to be 'consumerised' and technology enables institutions to support their students, from their academic studies and career counselling, to job placement.
"Mobile boosts the overall education experience. Offering continued engagement, it nudges the student along the path to student success.
"Students are fluent in the language of digital and to ensure successful student throughput, we need to speak their language," he says.
"Students change devices, locations, form of education constantly, and they want materials and resources to be available 24/7, in formats they are familiar with and that promote community," adds Du Plessis.
Wendy Kilfoil, professor and director of education innovation at University of Pretoria, says a proportion of the institution's students own multiple, high-end devices, the likes of which no university could provide for the majority of students.
"Tech-rich students want mobile access to resources. Those who come from resource-rich schools have been working with technology to create knowledge in a way seldom matched in universities. But the majority of students, even in well-resourced urban universities nowadays, come from deprived communities," she says.
Kilfoil pointed out that most students at universities and colleges have one device that links them to the Internet but have very little data, and therefore rely on the institutions' computers and WiFi systems for their education requirements.
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