Artificial Intelligence Transforming Higher Education Volume 1

Michael Agyemang Adarkwah is a Research Associate at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany. He served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Smart Learning Institute, Beijing Normal University (BNU), China. He obtained his Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Management from Southwest University, China. He has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and has worked as a Registered Nurse (RGN) in Ghana. He has given keynote speeches on Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education at the University of Portsmouth-Kaplan Symposium and the University of Ghana. His research interests are teaching and learning, motivation, assessment, digitalisation, computers and education, adult education, special education, linguistics, and healthcare education. He is an international peer reviewer and is part of the Editorial Board of the <em>Journal of Educational Studies and Multidisciplinary Approaches</em> (JESMA), the <em>International Journal of Modern Education Studies</em> (IJONMES), and <em>Social Education Research</em> (SER). He served as a Guest Editor for the <em>International Journal of Smart Technology</em> <em>and Learning</em>. He is an Associate Editor for <em>SN Social Sciences</em>.

Samuel Amponsah is an Associate Professor at the University of Ghana and heads the Distance Education Department. Samuel’s scholarship gained international recognition as he has served as fellow of the Global Challenges Research Fund/Liverpool John Moores University digital fellowship programme in 2020 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the American University in Cairo under the sponsorship of the BECH-Africa and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2022. In 2021, the University of South Africa appointed him as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Samuel has also been a Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham Christian College in the UK since 2022. His areas of research interest are adult learning, inclusive education, and open distance learning. Samuel is the Editor-in-Chief of the Multidisciplinary <em>Journal of Distance Learning</em> and has served as a Guest Editor for the <em>Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education</em>, <em>International Journal of Smart Technology and Learning</em>, and the prestigious <em>British Journal of Educational Technology</em>.

Elize du Plessis holds a Doctor of Education (D.Ed.) degree and has 35 years of experience in distance teaching. She currently holds the position of a full professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies at the University of South Africa (Unisa) and actively participates in curriculum development within the School of Teacher Education. Her primary area of expertise is teacher training, with a specific focus on addressing the challenges associated with Open Distance e-Learning (OdeL) teacher education pedagogy and assessment practices. Her current research also extends to Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT. In her present role, Elize serves as the programme coordinator for the Post Graduate Certificate in Education programme, which specifically encompasses the Senior Phase and Further Education and Training. She excels in the development of course materials for student teachers and has contributed to numerous books and a wide range of journal articles. Furthermore, she has presented research papers at both national and international conferences. Additionally, Elize actively contributes to academia by serving as a national and international reviewer for multiple academic journals. She also plays a key role as a supervisor and external examiner for M.Ed. and D.Ed./Ph.D. students.

Faiza Gani is a senior lecturer at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in the Department of Language Education, Arts and Culture. Her research is focused on ODL, online learning, technology enhanced learning, and quality assurance in ODL. She has worked in the ODL field for several years and is currently seconded to the Quality Assurance and enhancement office where she coordinates quality assurance for the college. This entails the coordination of reviews, quality assurance of study materials, and other related quality assurance activities in the college. As a developing researcher she has co-published in the field on online learning and ODL.

Marlene Holmner obtained a BA degree from the University of Pretoria in 1995, and a BA (Hons) Information Science (Cum Laude) in 1997. This was followed in 1999 by an MA in Information Science (Cum Laude) from the same institution. She completed her DPhil in 2008 with the title: <em>A critical analysis of information and knowledge societies with specific reference to the interaction between local and global knowledge systems</em>. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Information Science, University at Pretoria. She serves on the Information Technology for Development Editorial Board, and several other journal editorial boards. She is also active in ASIS&amp;T, serving as officer in 2021-2023 and a Steering Committee member of African Center of Excellence in Information Ethics. Marlene publishes primarily in the areas of information ethics, information communication for development, and ICT in education.

Patience Kelebogile Mudau (PhD) is an Associate Professor and acting Chair of Department in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies, in the College of Education at Unisa. She is involved in the coordination of the Online Teaching and Learning Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) project between UNISA and the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. She teaches in the Master of Education (specialising in ODL) programme. Her research interests are academic capacity building, open education practices, and technology-enhanced learning.

Nicky Tjano is currently the Director of Teaching &amp; Learning Strategy, Projects, and Portfolio Performance (Secondment) in the office of the VP: Teaching, Learning, Community Engagement, and Student Support (TLCESS) at UNISA. He is substantively appointed as a Curriculum and Learning Development (CLD) Specialist in the Directorate Curriculum Development and Transformation (DCDT). Prior to this appointment, he was a Senior Lecturer in the Business Management Department in the College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS). He was also seconded to the Deanery under Tuition and Student Support office as a Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning Coordinator (TELC). In this role, he was responsible for supporting academics in the exploration and integration of tools for technology-enhanced teaching. He was also responsible for coordinating the capacity development of academics in the use of teaching tools whilst also facilitating appropriate measures for change management in the College. Amidst these roles he was playing an active role in the Digitalisation of Teaching and Learning Solution (DTLS) project driving the implementation of (OdeL) programme initiatives in line with Unisa’s 2030 Strategic Agenda. He completed MCom at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and has completed a PhD at Unisa. He is currently supervising Masters and Doctoral candidates in the area of corporate governance, corporate sustainability, entrepreneurship, technology-mediated learning, artificial intelligence and data science. In terms of awards, he was voted the best employee of the year in 2011, received the Chancellor’s award in 2012 for the Best Overall performance Service, and received CEMS’ Excellence award in 2021.

Brenda van Wyk (PhD; MEd; MInf) is currently a Senior Academic and Research Fellow in the EBIT Faculty at the University of Pretoria. Previous positions include the Head of Academic Information Services at the Independent Institute of Education (IIE) and the Dean of Research at the IIE. She has been responsible for literacy teaching, postgraduate supervisor training, and postgraduate support in her current as well as previous positions. She has a passion for technology-assisted teaching and learning towards digital inclusion and cognitive social justice. Her research interests include open scholarship, metaliteracy, and information ethics. She serves on the steering committee of ACEIE. She managed several higher education projects, including the planning and implementation of research management systems and repositories. She is the Managing Editor of a DHET accredited journal, the <em>Independent Journal of Teaching and Learning</em> (IJTL). She is the Co-Chair if ICIL-Africa. She has published several manuscripts and articles in academic journals, chapters in books and conference proceedings. She is a research associate with JET Education Services.

Micheal van Wyk is a professor in Economics Education and an NRF-rated researcher at the College of Education, University of South Africa (UNISA). He is a qualified professional teacher, published articles in highly impacted journals, supervised doctoral and master’s degree students, read conference papers, published conference proceedings, edited academic books and was awarded external grants. He is a flipped instructional designer researcher in ODeL research. In 2013, he was awarded for his novel educational contributions to Economics Education in teacher education, the Chancellor Award for Excellence in Research (UNISA). In 2018, he was awarded the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for his groundbreaking research on the e-portfolio as an alternative assessment approach in teacher education at both the College of Education and the University of South Africa. One of his recent articles entitled, <em>Students’ perceptions of the flipped classroom pedagogy in an open distance e-learning university</em> (2020), was published in <em>Ubiquitous Learning: An International Journal</em> (SCOPUS) and voted as the best scholarly publication by the journal vetting panel and was consequently awarded the International Award for Excellence for Research (2020), Common Ground Research Network, University of Chicago, USA. In 2023, he was an awardee of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research (UNISA). He is also serving on international journal editorial boards and vetting panels. He was recently awarded the Medal of Honor Education from the Education Association of South Africa. He is the Associate Editor for <em>Heliyon: Education</em> (Scopus). His research interests are digital technologies, generative artificial intelligence, digital game-based learning, flipped pedagogy, e-Portfolios, authentic assessment, and Economics Education.