Digital Technology Use in South African Higher Education Teaching and Learning: A Comparative Study

The technology advancements which have been made possible by the Fourth Industrial Revolution are increasingly making information and communication technologies (ICTs) an integral part of both basic and higher education. The South African TVET sector, has received less attention in research on ICT integration in its activities, both in terms of teaching, learning and its information management. The key objective of this article was to determine the level of technology use in the teaching and learning (instructional) practices of two different higher education institutions in South Africa. The researchers employed mixed methods to collect quantitative and qualitative data from one university (North West University, Vaal Triangle Campus) and one TVET institution (Sedibeng TVET, Lekoa and Vanderbijlpark Campuses) in South Africa. We found that there is a substantial technological gap between the university and the TVET college under study, negatively affecting the adoption of digital technology in the TVET institution. Findings of this study reveal wide disparities in the two institutions’ adoption and utilisation of ICTs, particularly those that promote an e-learning environment in efforts to harness technology for teaching and learning. The study revealed that higher education institutions, particularly TVET institutions, need more ICT support, coupled with a more defined ICT/Digital policy framework governing their use of digital technology to thrive in the digitally driven administrative landscape of the era of digital governance. The paper recommends the need for more ICT capacity building in the TVET colleges. This study makes a unique contribution to digital technology use in the context of the TVET sector.