Online portal to help matrics

Student Village has partnered with the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to give all South African students access to video-based tutorials, via its online portal, www.UVillage.co.za, as a means of further supporting and preparing students for the upcoming final exams.

As part of the agreement, students will have access to hundreds of the University’s in-depth, curriculum-based maths tutorial videos via the www.UVillage.co.za website. The UJ tutorials are now available in English, Sipedi and Zulu – enabling students access to real lecture sessions directly aligned to university-specific lecture material.

‚”With first year university pass rates as low as 50%, especially in subjects such as Maths and Science, it is essential that we create alternative platforms and mechanisms to ensure that we are assisting these students in adequately preparing and passing exams,‚” says Marc Kornberger, CEO at Student Village. ‚”UVillage takes hundreds of hours of lecture time and summarises key concepts into just a couple of hours in the form of video tutorials, online quizzes and past exam questions. And now through the collaboration with UJ we have extended this value added service even further. Together with the UJ content, the portal now boasts in excess of 200 tutorial videos across Maths and Economics for first year students.‚”

‚”Some of the major challenges that students face when it comes to exam preparation is poor time management and self-discipline, as well as the lack of continuous revision throughout the semester,‚” states Professor Betsie Jonck, HOD for The Department of Mathematics at UJ. ‚”The electronic learning environment is playing an increasingly important role in bridging the gap between lectures and self-study where many students do not have the resources to acquire textbooks but have access to the internet and online material, such as e-books and explanatory videos.‚”

‚”UVillage is also the only South African online resource that will PAY students money back if they IMPROVE their grade!‚” says Kornberger. “Not only are we providing the tools to pass, but we are also incentivizing students to excel.””

‚””I am impressed with the whole idea of sharing available resources, it is very relevant if we want to overcome the challenges that students face. At UJ our aim is to ensure that we are always looking for ways in which to increase access for students to learning material and our partnership with UVillage platform has presented us with the opportunity to do just this – where students reap the benefit from a step-by-step example, which could be revisited at the students’ leisure,‚”” concludes Jonck.

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