The University of South Africa (Unisa) has provided another update in the ongoing saga with its technical problems around its student portal, with assignment due dates moved out yet again due to the fact that they could not be submitted.
The most recent update we got on this situation was in the middle of March almost a month ago when the university acknowledged the many problems with the myUnisa / myModules student portal.
These issues seem to stem from an upgrade done to the system to incorporate the Moodle learning platform announced in January. It seems this change has been causing hiccups for months now.
“We have been confronted with challenges relating to the implementation of the new learning management system. Of most concern has been the inability of our students to submit their assignments on the due dates. Consequently, management has taken the difficult decision to extend the all assignment due dates that were due before 8 April 2022. This is to provide additional opportunity to those students who have experienced challenges in their submissions and were unable to successfully submit their assignments. Students can expect to view their new extended dates from 12 April 2022,” Unisa writes.
While this is a blanket extension to assignment due dates it should be noted that not all modules are affected in the same way. Because each module is unique and handled differently, some alternative arrangements may already be in place to accommodate students and their handing over of work.
On top of this the automatic extension will not apply to certain schools within the university. CTA, Graduate School of Business Leadership, School of Engineering and
Signature courses modules are all excluded here. Students included in these exceptions should check their course sites for updates and new assignment due dates.
“The extension of assignment due dates will be done on a staggered basis with the first closing date of the extension starting 16 April 2022 and ending by 27 April 2022. The first semester examination timetable will be made available on the Unisa Examination Timetable Tool and will be available as from 15 April 2022. We anticipate the admission to the examinations will run from 29 April 2022, when students will receive their examination admission letters. The first semester examination period will commence on 16 May 2022,” the announcement continues.
Unisa is infamous for moving important dates around so none of this is particularly surprising. Hopefully the issues with the student portal can be fixed in due course, especially before the second semester of 2022.
