Editor’s note: We would like to thank Tshazi Zamavuso, Language and Writing Consultant at the Teaching and Learning Centre at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa for providing this collection of responses. To contact the author, please email TLC. If you would like to share your writing center’s experience during COVID-19, please submit via WLN.

COVID 19 has come with a massive shock to our personal, academic and professional lives within a short period. The virus imposed on us a lockdown that forced us to adjust to a new normal which has been rather challenging. From our writing centre perspective, we have experienced an unprecedented shift because our day to day work involves face to face workshops and one on one consultations. The centre had to completely transition to an online learning platform with insufficient training, bandwidth and little preparation. The centre also had to adjust to the idea of relying on technology for all its activities. Adjusting to this change comes with a tantamount responsibility of making sure that everyone who uses the centre is catered for and does not get left behind. This is almost impossible considering that some students and tutors come from communities that are plagued with problems beyond their control such as poor connections and lack of gadgets. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds are the ones that are affected the most, keeping in mind that the University of Fort Hare services the poor from historically disadvantaged communities.

With that said, tools such as skype, zoom, lark, have become the new mediums of interaction and these tools have completely changed the way of teaching and reaching out to students. These mediums of communication facilitate an efficient and effective way of reaching out to colleagues and students through video meetings, chat groups and learning material sharing. However, there are obstacles that we have encountered such as reliable access to internet and/or lack of computers or smart phones for participating in online learning. Such obstacles are limiting the efficiency of these mediums and are also disadvantaging some students and tutors who relied on the centre. To mitigate these problems, the government then instructed the universities to provide students with necessary materials for online learning such as laptops, modems and data. However, the deliverance of the instruction from the government by the University has been rather slow and that has affected the progress of online learning for the centre.

Since the lockdown began in South Africa, universities have definitely undergone unanticipated changes in the way they operate and that has affected how the centre operates and how it will operate in the future with a few of the lockdown regulations (such as social distancing and number of people allowed in gatherings) still in place. Therefore, the use of technology will not be abandoned as it has made things easier but the disadvantages cannot be ignored either. Therefore, the technology will be incorporated into the day to day operations of our centre. Lockdown has definitely opened discussions in our centre, government sectors and schools in general about making an effort to ensure that the systems and infrastructures are able to cope with future lockdowns. Needless to say, a lot needs to be done across South Africa by the minister of higher education to ensure an effortless transition to online learning should a need arises in the near future.