CAAC wins global innovative education award

The Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) at the University of Pretoria won the Regional Gold Award for Africa at the 2016 Reimagine Education Conference and Awards Ceremony held in Philadelphia, USA on Monday, 5 December 2016.

Reimagine Education is a leading global education competition that awards the most innovative projects in the fields of higher education and educational technology. The CAAC was shortlisted for the category Hybrid Learning, in which the focus was on projects that integrated web-based learning delivery and traditional learning practices. Attention was also given to how the team succeeded in improving learning outcomes in a way that foregrounded the learning team (educator and students) while simultaneously leveraging web-based internet resources. This year's Reimagine Education Competition was the most competitive to date, with a total of more than 500 entries received in the 14 award categories. The panel of judges repeatedly remarked on the high quality of the entries for 2016 and many hours of deliberation and reflection were necessary to choose – with difficulty – the winner from each of the 14 shortlists. Prof Bornman and the CAAC would like to convey their heartfelt thanks to the Dean, Prof Reddy, and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria for providing the necessary funding to enable Prof Bornman to attend the awards ceremony in Philadelphia.

The staff at the CAAC are passionate about providing innovative blended pedagogy that enhances students' learning outcomes and the acquisition of the kind of knowledge and unique skill sets that will impact the lives of people with communication disabilities.