List of Reviewers
We wish to thank the following reviewers for their contributions to the Proceedings. Each
reviewer blind-peer reviewed at least two submissions. None of the authors or the editors
were involved in reviewing their own submissions.
Billy Kalema University of Mpumalanga
Chimwemwe Queen Mtegha University of Cape Town
Colin Chibaya Sol Plaatje University
Elias Tabane University of South Africa
Lateef Amusa University of Johannesburg
Lovemore Motsi University of South Africa
Madzima Kudakwashe Sol Plaatje University
Naomi Isabirye University of the Witwatersrand
Nkosikhona Theoren Msweli University of South Africa
Ntombizethu Lubisi University of the Witwatersrand
Olawande Daramola Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Priscilla Maliwichi Malawi University of Science and Technology
Rodney Mushininga University of KwaZulu-Natal
Sibukele Gumbo Walter Sisulu University
Steven Mamorobela Tshwane University of Technology
Tendani Mawela University of Pretoria
Thembekile Mayayise University of the Witwatersrand
Wallace Chigona University of Cape Town
Yvonne Machaba University of South Africa
List of Editors
Hossana Twinomurinzi University of Johannesburg
Colin Surendra Thakur Durban University of Technology
Tendani Mawela University of Pretoria
Nkosikhona Theoren Msweli University of South Africa
Sibukele Gumbo Walter Sisulu University
Victoria Tau National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa
Preface and Executive Summary
The NEMISA Digital Skills Conference (Colloquium) 2023, and the associated events
(Postgraduate Symposium and Technology Innovation session) was held between 15-17
February 2023 at the Coastlands Umhlanga Hotel & Convention Centre in Durban, hosted
by the Durban University of Technology (DUT) in collaboration with the Knowledge for
Innovation unit (K4I) at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and the National Electronic
Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA).
A total of 496 delegates (184 in person and 312 virtually through Zoom) attended the
three collocated events (Conference, Postgraduate Symposium and Technology
Innovation) bringing together thought leaders, policy makers, software developers,
technology enthusiasts, industry leaders, academics, students, social entrepreneurs,
leaders of non-government organisations and innovation hubs to address how to scale
data skills for multidisciplinary impact. The virtual delegates joined from 2 continents and
5 countries (excluding South Africa); Eswatini, Ethiopia, Germany, Kenya and Nigeria.
The purpose of the colloquium and events centred around the central role that data plays
today as a desirable commodity that must become an important part of massifying digital
skilling efforts. Governments amass even more critical data that, if leveraged, could
change the way public services are delivered, and even change the social and economic
fortunes of any country. Therefore, smart governments and organisations increasingly
require data skills to gain insights and foresight, to secure themselves, and for improved
decision making and efficiency. However, data skills are scarce, and even more
challenging is the inconsistency of the associated training programs with most curated for
the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
Nonetheless, the interdisciplinary yet agnostic nature of data means that there is
opportunity to expand data skills into the non-STEM disciplines as well.
Technology Innovation
The Technology Innovation session was a culmination of the NEMISA Datathon held in November 2023 under the same theme of “Scaling data skills for multidisciplinary impact”. The datathon resulted in five talented winning teams being selected. It is noteworthy that each of these teams hailed from a different province of South Africa, including Mpumalanga, Gauteng, North West, Limpopo, and Free State. Over the course of two months following their victory, each team worked tirelessly with an innovation hub and mentors Koedr and Thenjiwe Kubheka to refine their solutions and compete for the
ultimate winner prize at the conference. The panel of judges who evaluated their submissions was composed of esteemed professionals in the field, bringing a high level of expertise and credibility to the selection process. These judges were: Mr Tiyani Nghonyama (Geekulcha), Mr Tumelo Baloyi (Monolith), Dr Naomi Isabirye (University of the Witwatersrand) and Dr Banele Mhlongo (Department of Health). Mr Thato Semenya, Mr Letlhogonolo Korosi, Mr Nthabiseng Mathikge, Mr Itumeleng Pitje and Mr Katlego Mokgosane from Future DX were the winners in North West and worked with Mafikeng Digital Innovation Hub. Their solution was an online learning management system that offers future courses based on emerging technologies. The solution offers each student a portfolio of evidence on completion. The solution also AI to predict which jobs might be suitable to the learner and makes a recommendation. The A-Team consisted of Ms Sanna Rasethaba, Ms Malebo Moleleki, Mr Kenan Kasongo and Mr Aaron Kibambe. They are from the Gauteng Province under the Technopreneurship Centre at the University of Johannesburg. Their solution focused on
detecting misinformation mainly from social media using AI, and determining whether information being placed in the public domain is likely true or false. They saw an opportunity to offer reliable information to the public and to foster greater transparency and accountability. Mr Lunga Feni and Mr Bahle Menziwa from the Cortex Hub were from the Limpopo Province. They presented a solution aimed to address the digitization gap in rural areas
in South Africa, with a focus on network coverage, road access, electricity coverage, schools, and health care services, as well as census data. Their solution saw the opportunity from areas that do not have access to communications coverage and are
therefore digitally excluded. Techgro members were Mr Tshwarelo Madisha, Mr Bigboy Mogajane, Ms Maria Kanyane, Ms Patricia Kekana and Ms Tshegofatso. They were the datathon winners from
Mpumalanga. They worked with the Vulingqondo Innovation Hub to refine their solution on Smart Agriculture. Being in a rural community that experiences high unemployment and poverty, their solution focused on rural smart agriculture initiatives that can unlock economic activities and create green job opportunities. They identified the opportunity as access to vast amounts of land but with limited water and long spells of heat. Mr Jandre van Vuuren, Mr Ruan Britz, Mr Corne Combrink and Mr Schalk Hanekom of Elite Vine were from Free State. Their solution, Jobboard, is a cloud-based platform to connect job seekers and employers. It offers a convenient solution for individuals who are unemployed or facing resource limitations by providing access to job and education opportunities through both online and physical channels.
Postgraduate Symposium
The postgraduate symposium provided a facilitative platform for emerging researchers to showcase their work, to network, and to engage with seasoned academics and practitioners. The day was opened by Prof Shawren Singh, the Head of the Department of Information Systems at the University of South Africa. He emphasised on the importance of continuous innovation across all sectors, driven by digital technologies, to improve South Africa’s economy. Prof Nixon Muganda Ochara from the University of the Witwatersrand urged students and researchers to incorporate AI and other digital technology tools into their postgraduate studies. He highlighted the significance of the current era, where access to information through digital assistants has become much easier. Prof Ochara emphasized the need for the practice of science to evolve with the available digital tools, rather than clinging to traditional methods. Additionally, Prof Ochara pointed out that a researcher's world view or philosophical stance has a significant impact on the culture of research writing, making it crucial for researchers to be mindful of this aspect. This perspective also influences the ethics surrounding research findings. Therefore, researchers should prioritize deep critical thinking and to develop the digital skills to use multiple digital assistants to enhance their work. Prof Wallace Chigona, from the University of Cape Town, shared his insights on
postgraduate supervision. He highlighted the increasing role of postgraduate students in their own supervision and drew from his wealth of experience in supervising postdoctoral fellows, PhD and Masters students. Prof Chigona shed light on a topic that is often
overlooked - the supervisory experience of academics. He emphasized the need for more discourse on this subject, especially given the growing pressure on supervisors to produce more postgraduate students. The discussion also explored the intricate
relationships between students and their supervisors, emphasizing the importance of emotional and social support in addition to technical guidance. The discussion also noted that some students may attempt the PhD for the wrong reasons and require additional
support to successfully complete their studies. The discussion highlighted the need for more attention to be given to the supervision process and the importance of providing comprehensive support to postgraduate students. Three PhD posters were presented: Chimwemwe Queen Mtegha from the University of
Cape Town presented her research on institutional factors in government agencies that affect the realisation of national cybersecurity capacity building outcomes. She drew from Malawi. Thaneshni Moodley from the Durban University of Technology presented on framework to observe and analyse customer experience on the twitter platform using machine learning techniques. Teofelus Tonateni Tuyeni also from the University of Cape Town discussed the research on identifying important factors that influence governments commitment to cybersecurity drawing from Namibia. There were two workshops; one was on Natural Language Processing and Sentiment Analysis by Prof Colin Thakur and Mr Yassen Khan, and the other on Statistical Analysis using R by Dr Lateef Amusa and Ms Sibukele Gumbo. The Natural Language Processing and Sentiment Analysis workshop provided the audience with an in-depth understanding of how to extract meaning from textual data, identifying patterns and trends, and analysing the sentiment behind written content. Similarly, the Statistical Analysis using R offered an introduction to the R programming language and its use in statistical analysis. The audience learned how to visualize, explore, and analyse complex data sets using various R packages and tools, as well as how to perform hypothesis testing and regression analysis. The hands-on approaches of both workshops were particularly helpful in delivering an appreciation of data skills used on real-world data sets.
Colloquium
A total of 18 submissions were received for the colloquium of which 12 were accepted as full research papers after a double-blind peer review process, representing a 66.7% acceptance rate. The average peer review rate was 2.43, which means that each research paper was reviewed by at least 2 reviewers with some having more reviews. Prof Shawren Singh, speaking on behalf of the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Teaching and Learning at the University of South Africa, gave a warm welcome to the esteemed attendees of the colloquium. In his opening remarks, Prof Singh emphasized the importance of creating an environment that fosters a thriving culture of research at the postgraduate level, which is inclusive of multiple sectors of society. Prof Singh went on to highlight the evolving demands placed on postgraduate research in today's world, which now requires not just theoretical contributions, but practical ones as well. He stressed the significance of globalisation in research and how it has intensified the competition at a global level, putting pressure on students to complete their postgraduate degrees in a shorter period of time. The discussion also delved into how research is driving organisations globally, but in South Africa, there seems to be a slow pace in focusing on solving critical societal problems. This puts a greater expectation on postgraduate students in South Africa today to deliver results that will have a real impact. Prof Colin Thakur gave a welcome on behalf of the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Durban University of Technology. He stressed the significance of innovation in today's rapidly evolving business landscape and gave a reminder of the importance of asking questions, the right questions, and valuing all stakeholders in the creation of new knowledge. However, he cautioned that knowledge alone does not guarantee success. We must also ss the wisdom to use it appropriately and avoid potential destructive consequences. Innovation is an ever-changing target that requires constant improvement, for which we must remain vigilant and strive to continually develop innovative capabilities. The Chair of the NEMISA Board, Ms Molebogeng Leshabane, extended a warm welcome to all guests and introduced the Acting Deputy Director General who officially opened the conference. During her remarks, Ms Leshabane noted the increasing complexity in the world that requires a multidisciplinary approach. She emphasized that data, in its agnostic nature, permeates all industries and is central to bringing together different sectors of society. Navigating these complexities to lead digital skills efforts in such a society is a great task for NEMISA. However, the organization is committed to reducing inequality and
ensuring that no one is left behind. In addition, Ms Leshabane highlighted that youth unemployment is a pressing challenge that requires significant effort. The digital economy provides new opportunities, such as algorithmic auditing, which can help address this issue. Youth can also access markets that were not previously available, and government services can be improved through digital innovation. The conference was officially opened by the Acting Deputy Director General of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), Ms Nonkqubela Thathakahle Jordan-Dyani. On behalf of the Deputy Minister, My Philly Mapulane, she
extended a warm welcome to all the partners of NEMISA who are committed to achieving the digital skills mandate, as well as the researchers who will be leading the way forward. Ms Jordan-Dyani emphasized the importance of addressing the curriculum and access
to higher education to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to develop the digital skills needed in today's world. She challenged NEMISA to fast-track the importance of digital skills in a changing world that is being driven by advanced digital technologies. With the skills South Africa already has, talent is not the challenge. What is needed is to share research findings and knowledge to enable everyone to benefit. She decried the silos in government and urged NEMISA to share the learnings from the conference widely through digital platforms. How can advanced digital technologies be filtered down to the every South African? This was a question she posed, as she highlighted the need to address the current challenges facing South Africa, such as unemployment, poverty, and socioeconomic equity. Skills development is a crucial part of South Africa's advancement, including responsive innovation to meet local demands. Achieving this requires strong partnerships from different sectors of society, including the rural areas. Addressing the issue of male dominance in the ICT field and making data and infrastructure more widely available are critical components of this effort. Ms Jordan-Dyani concluded by encouraging NEMISA to share the results and outcomes of the conference for others to draw upon. With everyone working together, South Africa can move forward with
confidence and ensure that no one is left behind in the digital age. The second keynote was offered by Dr Mark Nasila, the Chief Data Analytics Officer at the First Rand Group. Dr Nasila underscored the need to adopt new thinking in order to create a better future. He highlighted the importance of how advanced technologies such as AI are introduced into organisation, and emphasized the social aspects that must be considered in doing so. Dr Nasila compared how over $16 trillion is being invested in bringing AI into organizations worldwide, with China and the USA leading the way. He stressed the importance of skilling people to be a part of this wave of investment and to trust in AI. He also spoke about the ethical implications of AI, including the fear of job losses, and laboured the need for leaders to repurpose people into new roles that will not be taken over by machines. The keynote speech expressed confidence that NEMISA's
investment in AI skilling will pay off and contribute to a better future for South Africa. Ms Cheryl Benadie in her keynote emphasized the importance of focusing on the humans behind the data, science, and technology. Specifically, she brought attention to the area of wellness, which is often overlooked in the rapidly changing and advancing technology space. Ms. Benadie noted that the younger generations have grown up in a world where technology and reality are not distinguished, leading to a sense of disconnection from the
real world. Shockingly, suicide has become the second leading cause of death among those aged 15-24, with the Gen Z facing a crisis of identity. Ms. Benadie called for purpose to be considered a critical digital skill for the younger generation to help combat this issue.
It is crucial to connect the head and the heart to create a sense of wholeness among the Gen Z, who are more prone to burnout and stress. Ms. Benadie observed that technology can sometimes overshadow the humanity of people, leading to a loss of connection.
Finally, she noted that jobs are becoming increasingly fluid, making it difficult to guarantee employment after completing studies – this is also a significant stressor today.
Panel on the Digital Skills Framework
Prof Leona Craffert, who chaired the panel session, offered an overview of the Digital Skills Framework (DSF) created in 2013, highlighting how the DSF provides an organizing framework on digital skills in South Africa, ranging from basic to advanced high-tech digital skills. Mr Trevor Rammitlwa, the CEO facilitated the panel, identifying how the transformation South Africa is going through is making digital skills essential across the board. However, there is a fragmentation of how digital skills are being approached, and the DSF serves as a means of bringing together different perspectives on digital skills. Prof Debbie Collier, an expert in Labour Law who works on digital work, the platform economy, and recently with Labour Unions and Nedlac on the regulatory (or policy) aspects of digital skills, noted that context plays a significant role in the world of work, and the strategy to roll out digital skills and the framework for digital skills need to interact in the holistic world of work. The framework is goal-oriented, offering a guide on what to look for, how to continually adapt to the changing world of work, and how to gain skills needed for new environments. M. Andy Searly, Director of Paladin Consulting and he original founder of the Digital Work Accelerator initiative, provided a perspective from industry on
digital skills as part of collective action, noting the challenges of speed and scale demanded for skills for the market. He found that digital skills need to start at the primary level, extending to the workplace. The framework provides a common language and
pathway to connect different paths a person may want to take, offering certainty to industry about what to expect from graduates of programs designed around the framework. Mr John April, Director in the Office of the CEO for QCTO, noted that the framework offers an opportunity to respond to the growing demand for digital skills,
helping to set standards against which to develop content and qualifications, including verification and authentication. Mr Mlindi Mashologu, DDG for the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies (DCDT), emphasized that from a policy perspective, a digitally skilled society needs to have a reference point in the Future Skills plan of South Africa, which is supported by the ministry. Failing to have a digitally skilled population by 2030 risks alienation from a global society, a massive loss of jobs, and failure to be a competitive nation. Finally, it was mentioned that NEMISA has been working on an online platform from which digital skills are delivered. In conclusion, the panel discussed the importance of the DSF framework, which offers a common language between stakeholders, addresses the urgency of skills development, and emphasizes the
need to prioritize areas to ensure a digitally skilled population in South Africa.
The CEO of NEMISA closed the conference and expressed his thanks for the rich engagement that had happened at the conference from the postgraduate symposium right to the final session, the panel on the Digital Skills Framework. Digital transformation when done well is a benefit for society, and that we cannot forget mental wellness and
wholeness. The human element cannot be ignored, and design thinking needs to be a part of efforts going forward. We need a post-colloquium review session so that we determine what next after the conference.
Universities represented at the Colloquium
1. Durban University of Technology, South Africa
2. Ghent University, Belgium
3. Malawi University of Science and Technology, Malawi
4. Sol Plaatje University, South Africa
5. University of Cape Town, South Africa
6. University of Johannesburg, South Africa7. University of Pretoria, South Africa
8. University of South Africa, South Africa
9. University of the Western Cape, South Africa
10. University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
11. Walter Sisulu University, South Africa
12. Zimbabwe National Defense University, Zimbabwe
Summary of the accepted research papers
Thato Ditsele, Wallace Chigona, and Malebo Sephodi, investigated the sentiment of South African Twitter users towards COVID-19 vaccines. The study provides valuable insights for policymakers and healthcare organizations to shape effective strategies for promoting vaccine adoption. Papama Mtambeka, Chimwemwe Queen Mtegha, Wallace Chigona, and Teofelus Tonateni Tuyeni, delves into the factors that affect students' compliance with universities' cybersecurity measures. The study provides insights into how universities can better protect their critical infrastructures and students against cyberattacks. Prince Zaqueu and Tendani Mawela's identified the contributing factors for successful cybersecurity awareness, education, and training programs. The study offers several recommendations towards effective cybersecurity awareness, education, and training. Vengai Musanga and Colin Chibaya proposed a machine learning model to forecast employee churn in organizations. Employee churn can be harmful to the quality of services, productivity, and customer loyalty. Therefore, retaining valuable employees is crucial for organizations. The authors used feature selection methods combined with strong classification models to predict employee churn. The results revealed that random forest is the most accurate in predicting employee churn. Siphiwe Mndebele and Thembekile Mayayise presented a systematic literature review
that investigated the challenges and impacts of implementing machine learning in the financial services sector. The authors uses three databases to search for relevant sources and conducted a thematic analysis. The review shows that more complex models are
implemented in all the identified financial services sectors, followed by support vector machines. The paper concludes that data quality is crucial for predicting performance, efficiency, and accuracy of the model. Marungwane Leshego Mogale evaluated the impact of organizational resources and big data analytics on the business performance of South African e-commerce SMMEs. The author used a systematic approach to literature and identifies key organizational
resources that enable the use of big data analytics. These resources include IT infrastructure, IT human resources, financial resources, risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness. The paper develops a conceptual framework that may be tested in future research using empirical data. Nixon Muganda Ochara analyzed how the emerging digitalization issues might be philosophically understood from a systems viewpoint. The paper identified five systemic digitalization challenges, including the circular economy, cyberphysical systems, sharing economy, digital transformation, and smart systems. The author used five systems metaphors to investigate the challenges.
Priscilla Maliwichi, Wallace Chigona, Address Malata, and Karen Sowon explored the challenge of low mobile phone ownership among women in poor-resource settings. The authors investigated how maternal healthcare clients who do not own mobile phones negotiate access to mobile phones for maternal healthcare in rural Malawi.
Nkosikhona Msweli focused on the competencies required to teach data science in a higher learning institution. She examined instructors' perceptions of their skills and competencies in teaching data science, which is a developing topic. Elias Tabane investigated the use of dimensionality reduction techniques in machine learning to diagnose heart diseases in South Africa. The paper provides an overview of the different techniques and highlights the importance of considering the interpretability of the results and potential biases in the data and algorithms. Sibukele Gumbo and Hossana Twinomurinzi explored the challenge of improving the completion rate of self-paced online learning courses, particularly in the context of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills development in South Africa. The authors reported on the strategy implemented to improve the course completion rate of a self-selected sample of students who attended face-to-face data science introduction workshops. Julia Keddie, Renette Blignaut, Fallo Kanye, Lieven De Marez, and Simon Perneel,
investigated the use of the mobileDNA application to explore location information. The authors examined the behavior of mobileDNA users in terms of where, when, and how they utilized their smartphones daily.
Research in Progress, Short Papers and Abstracts
by Ntombizethu Lubisi and Samwel Mwapwele
Over the years, institutions of higher learning across the world have embraced the use of digital technology to facilitate learning. University students require digital skills and digital competencies to take full advantage of online learning. Additionally, one of the most
important factors in students’ learning experience in an online environment is the sense of belonging. Students engaging in online learning, geographically separated, often feel isolated from their peers and instructors due to the lack of social presence. The purpose
of the study was to explain the necessary digital skills, digital competencies, and social presence for effective online learning in a South African university. The study used the extended general technology competency and use (GTCU) framework which is combined with the social presence theory as a lens to study South African university online learning. A case study approach was used involving a highly ranked university in South Africa. We followed a mixed-method approach. Data was collected via an online questionnaire with 127 respondents and semi-structured interviews with seven participants. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings from the study indicate that online communication, social context, and interactivity were a challenge to students we collected data from when engaging in online learning. The interaction was a challenge, and participants felt isolated from their instructors which impacted their online learning experience. Students did not feel a sense of belonging to their courses. The study contributes to the theory by extending the GTCU framework. The study con-tributes to policies such as the South African National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 with a focus on lifelong learning, and
quality education from the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 4. It also contributes to the ICT and education body of knowledge.
by Natasha Katunga, Carlynn Pokpas, Leona Craffert and Rorisang Molukanele
As South Africa embraces the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and pursues its digital transformation agenda (DCDT, 2020), there has been a significant focus on the digital skills development of citizens, ranging from basic digital literacy to more specialised skills in areas like robotics, data science and artificial intelligence. In this light, concerted efforts have been made to realise approaches and methods of skills delivery that are both feasible and effective in the given context – specifically in reaching the most vulnerable, under-resourced and digitally excluded communities. Approaches towards digital skilling interventions across the country have typically been
face-to-face, however, there has been considerable emphasis over the past years to shift gears. Online methods of teaching and learning have become central to the South African government’s digital agenda. The COVID-19 pandemic unquestionably intensified and accelerated efforts in this regard. At a national level, research suggests that “during the lockdown, various 4IR tools were unleashed for primary education to higher and tertiary education where educational activities switched to remote learning (online learning) that South Africa generally has some pockets of excellence to drive the education sector into the 4IR, which has the potential to increase education access” (Mhlanga & Moloi, 2020, p. 1). Similarly, concerted shifts towards online learning approaches may potentially have significantly beneficial implications in enhancing the digital skills of South African citizens. However, online learning certainly does not come without distinct challenges. The absence of social interaction and personal support from a teacher or peer has had negative consequences in cases where many require human intervention in learning (Haché, 2011). Factors like loneliness and lack of motivation (Precel, Eshet-Alkalai & Alberton, 2009), as well as poor language fluency and miscommunication, may negatively impact online learning attempts. More pressing concerns, however, are the individual’s unfamiliarity with the technology required for online learning and the lack of cognitive skills which are required to engage effectively with (particularly online) technology (Precel et al., 2009). While technical difficulties and errors (for example, programs crashing) are to be expected in the online era, the far more significant dilemma is presented in the poor access to digital devices and the Internet – made glaring across the world during the current pandemic and particularly damaging and restricting to learning activities in developing regions.
Consequently, there is a need for education and training institutions across all sectors to investigate and devise the most effective teaching and learning methods (ITU et al., 2020), particularly considering the shift towards online learning. In this regard, a mixed method case study guided by monitoring and evaluation techniques was conducted to explore critical factors which would enable digital skills training providers and key role players to deliver digital skills most effectively for meaningful outcomes in an online first South African context. The investigation focused on four digital skills development facilitators operating in under-resourced communities in the Western Cape province. These community-based organisations provide formal and informal digital skills learning opportunities to empower citizens and make them more employable, more entrepreneurial, and capable of generating income. The investigation included the perspectives of both the organisations and training beneficiaries.
The study results shed light on various key factors to be considered in the implementation of online digital skills training interventions in South Africa, including the digital inclusion profile of training bene-ficiaries and their preferences in terms of appropriate training approaches, and training facilitators’ experience and perspectives on effective intervention delivery given the socioeconomic realities faced in their communities. Critical success factors in delivering digital skills training interventions effectively for meaningful outcomes in an online-first South African context, therefore, include adequate infra-structure and digital technologies, an ecosystem of broad and diverse networks and a nuanced people-centric teaching approach.
References
DCDT. (2020) National Digital and Future Skills Strategy (Issue 43730).
Haché, A. (2011) Under the radar: The contribution of civil society and third sector organisations to e-Inclusion. Seville, Spain: European Commission.
ITU, UNESCO, & UNICEF. (2020) The Digital Transformation of Education: Connecting Schools, empowering learners (Issue September).
Mhlanga, D., & Moloi, T. (2020). COVID-19 and the digital transformation of education: What are we learning on 4ir in South Africa? Education Sciences, 10(7), 1–11.
doi.org/10.3390/educsci10070180.
Precel, K., Eshet-Alkalai, Y. and Alberton, Y. (2009) Pedagogical and design aspects of a blended learning course. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance
Learning, 10(2), pp.1-16.
by Hossana Twinomurinzi, Naomi Isabirye and Trevor Rammitlwa
The abstract shares preliminary findings from data about job susceptibility in the Broadcasting sector using a model measuring political, economic, social and technological factors. Five groups were measured: content creators (55), human resource practitioners (21), management (23), presenters and anchors (55), and technical personnel (52). It was found that overall, all the categories experience uncertainty about the availability of jobs in the broadcasting market, and that competition for jobs has increased. More specifically, content creators, presenters and anchors, and technical personnel feel a sense of job insecurity. HR practitioners are most cognisant though that jobs in the broadcasting sector are at risk, there is a new emergence of new forms of work in the broadcasting sector despite the sector providing fair wages for work done.
by Chimwemwe Queen Mtegha
National cybersecurity capacity building is essential in expanding the countries’ capabilities to fight against cybercrimes. Government agencies play a pivotal role in national cybersecurity capacity building as these are tasked with implementing the initiatives to build a country’s cyber resilience. One of the key strategies countries use to develop national cybersecurity capacity is the National Cyber-security Capacity Building Frameworks (NCCBF). These NCCBFs enable myriad opportunities for government agencies to realise national cybersecurity capacity building outcomes through the development of national cybersecurity policies, cybersecurity education and training, regulations ,and incidence response mechanisms. In developing countries, the outcomes that have been realised from these NCCBFs have not been satisfactory. Studies have shown that the potential impact of these NCCBF to realise the cybersecurity capacity building outcomes are limited by the institutional context in which these interventions are
being used. Research has seldom been done to explain how gover-nment agencies use these NCCBFs to generate the outcomes and how institutional factors affect the realisation of these national cybersecurity capacity building outcomes.
by Thaneshni Moodley, Surendra Thakur and Alveen Singh
A customer's entire online experience with a brand is referred to as their "digital customer experience. The company website can serve as the initial touchpoint, but it may also include mobile apps, chatbots, social media, and other channels where the touchpoint is virtual (Pillarisetty and Mishra 2022; Roggeveen and Rosengren 2022). Some retailers have seen a decline in customer base as consumers, forced migrated to online shopping habits and modes of transacting (Stiegler and Bouchard 2020). Retail services comprise hardware, apparel, appliances, electronics, books, presents, and second-hand products,
as well as incidental repairs, and involves the use of a building or portion of a building by persons engaged in the selling of goods to clients (Lømo and Ulsaker 2021).
It is clear that the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic – has forced a trans-formation retailers (Ogunlela and Tengeh 2020). Within months, a revolution has taken place, constituting major changes to how consumers view cash, how consumers shop online, what consumers expect from retailers, and which things consumers value as part of a positive buying experience (Rukuni and Maziriri 2020).
Consumers increasingly expected retailers to create seamless customer experiences (Mhlanga and Moloi 2020). This often meant leaning on digital capabilities to create a seamless, omni-channel experience by linking different aspects of the customer shopping
experience. Some retailers were better at this than others(Haapio et al. 2021). Expectation is becoming a requirement for all retailers in order to operate, with many rapidly needing to rapidly include their operations to online(Lashgari and Shahab 2022). Retailers need a way to identify retail complaints and understand them. By identifying
complaints, the retailers benefits by understanding the gap in their services and improve product quality, improve customer’s loyalty and improve their business online reputation(Jiang and Stylos 2021; Nuninger 2022).
Among the many popular social media platforms available in RSA, Twitter is the fifth most popular. Twitter is a microblogging and social networking website based in the United States that allows users to send and receive messages known as "tweets." Unregistered
users can only read tweets that are publicly visible, while registered users can write, like, and retweet them (Erskine and Hendricks 2021). With 100 million daily active users and 500 million tweets sent daily, Twitter, a social networking site started in 2006, is one of
the most prominent social media platforms available today. At the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference, more than 60,000 tweets were exchanged, demonstrating Twitter's phenomenal growth (Okazaki et al. 2020b). The Twitter team used the conference to start expanding their user base. The 140-character limit was originally set by cell carriers, not Twitter, because Twitter started as an SMS-based site(Gunarathne, Rui and Seidmann 2018).
However, as Twitter evolved into a web platform, the limit was maintained because it was consistent with the Twitter brand: Twitter is a platform that tries to provide short, readable material (Ibrahim and Wang 2019; Singh et al. 2021).
This research works in the intersection of “establishing an unders-tanding of how online retailers analyse customer experiences narrated on social media” and “customer experiences expressed on the Twitter social media platform”. Given recent and rapid advancements in data science, there are several possible tools that can be crafted to allow online retailers to intercept, interpret and respond to their customers. At this point, the question is “what are the best tools?” Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine which is the best ML algorithm work best in the data analytic framework to identify retail complaints posted in Twitter.
There are many recent developments in data science, and this research focuses on machine learning (ML). Classical ML includes supervised and unsupervised learning models while newer are ensemble ML models. These models have the potential to underpin these tools that online retailers can leverage upon to better interpret customer comments and in turn to better understand online customer needs. This study focuses on experimenting with ML techniques to determine which is the best for the purpose to
understand and interpret online customer comments. The research aims to answer the best ML technique found in supervised, unsupervised, and more recently, ensemble as well as deep learning. The process of studying raw data in order to draw conclusions about it is known as data analytics. Data analytics techniques and processes have been turned into mechanical processes and algorithms that operate on raw data for human consumption (Rahim et al. 2020). A company's performance can be improved by using data analytics.
This research sets out to determine which is the most suitable ML algorithm for the purposes of sentiment analysis of online customer complaints lodged on Twitter social media platform. This research is carried out using Pycharm, Microsoft Excel and selected ML techniques. Lexicon-based approach to be used to computer sentiment polarity. A performance metrics will be used to compare each algorithm. The performance metrics will contain the statistical measures reliability, accuracy, specificity, and F – measures.
The way a data mining model performs on diverse data sets is measured by its Reliability(Merten et al. 2018). A data mining model is dependable if it provides predictions that find the same basic types of patterns independent of the test data provided. The Performance Specificity assesses how well a data mining technique performs on a certain dataset. A Classifier's accuracy is calculated as a percentage of total correct predictions divided by the total number of instances (Mezghani et al. 2019). The percentage of correctly positive data divided by the sum of correctly positive and false-negative data of the marker is referred to as Sensitivity and the usefulness and
relevance of the data are measured by the data quality factor (Jeong, Cho and Lee 2018). In a highly competitive market, business decisions based on wild guesses have no place. Successful business owners collect and manage a specific type of information that aids
in the development of future strategies. Only in this way will be able to tailor their products and services to precisely meet the wants of their customers. The framework will start with data extraction and will extract group detection profiling, recommendations, hashtags, retweets, mentions and locations from Twitter. The extraction will identify customer complaints. The data will go through a series of NLP pre-processing techniques which are tokenisation, stemming and lemmatisation, part-of speech (POS) tagger, name entity recognition (NER), and parser to extract emotions for the textual data from each tweet. The cleaned data will be modelled using the data mining
algorithm which are Supervised Learning Algorithms, Unsupervised Learning Algorithms and Deep Learning Algorithms.
The research method to identify the appropriate machine learning algorithm to be use for twitter data analytics that produces the best result in terms of the clarity of customer complaint utilises Pycharm. Pycharm is an integrated development environment that combines python and c#. The research would then test each machine learning algorithm for reliability, accuracy, specificity, and F – measures. This aims to answer the research question on what appropriate machine learning algorithm can be proposed for Twitter data analytics that produces the best result in terms of the clarity of customer complaints based on the performance metrics attributes. To answer the research question, a data analytic framework was developed in Pycharm. The appropriate data was extracted from Twitter within South Africa. The data was then cleaned before it can go through sentiment analysis. Data with a negative sentiment analysis was further used to best performing data mining technique. The data mining algorithms within the appropriate data mining technique was evaluated against the performance metrics. Supervised machine learning performed the best, followed by unsupervised machine learning and there after deep learning. The aim of the study is to develop a data analytics framework to enhance the quality of
data of customer complaints on Twitter. This research contributes to the current body of knowledge in using machine learning and data mining techniques to extract Twitter data to identify customer complaints more accurately. This is the first study that introduces data analytics to retail in South Africa.
References
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by Annelie Jordaan and Rorisang Molukanele
The literature review focuses on ICT SMMEs in South Africa—especially in previously disadvantaged/unreached and marginalised communities—in the context of 4IR. The review covers the global emergence of 4IR, the worldwide impact of 4IR on business and people, 4IR in Africa, and then funnels down to ICT and the digital divide in South Africa. The role of SMMEs is explored within the framework of the country‘s ICT SMME Strategy, which forms the foundation for discussing ICT SMME training interventions in South Africa. The role NEMISA plays in collaboration with the Northern Cape & Southern Gauteng e-Skills CoLab (amongst other CoLabs) to scale digital skills (e-skills) throughout South Africa, is explained. Specific SMME training interventions implement by the Northern Cape & Southern Gauteng e-Skills CoLab (or VUT CoLab in short) and its service providers are discussed extensively.
by Naomi Isabirye
In South Africa, many studies on youth online behavior have emphasised raising awareness and educating youth, parents and educators about the general dangers of the Internet. However, there is a gap in studies that aim to understand the risks that specifically exist in the day-to-day use of the Internet amongst South African learners.
While there is little research specifically on Internet addiction in South Africa, related studies suggest that there is a need to examine digital health and wellbeing amongst children and youth in South Africa. Despite the growing awareness of addictive digital experiences and dark patterns, there remains a need to promote access and usage of
the Internet to youth to support learning. This paper explores the risks of addictive digital experiences and their effect on lifelong learning for adolescents. The paper takes the form of a narrative literature review and makes recommendations for policy makers in
education.
by Teofelus Tonateni Tuyeni
The increasing reliance on Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) has seen exponential growth in cybersecurity incidents. This has caused substantial financial losses and disruptions to critical economic activities. Governments worldwide have a critical role in preventing and mitigating cybersecurity incidents. Prioritising cybersecurity can lead to a secure cyber environment and the attainment of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study seeks to identify and explain the factors influencing the government’s commitment towards cybersecurity in Africa by answering the following research question: What factors influence government's commitment towards cybersecurity?
The study will adopt an interpretivism philosophical stance. A conceptual model will be applied to provide a lens to assess factors influencing the government’s commitment towards cybersecurity. This qualitative study uses the case of Namibia. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews, online questionnaires, and document reviews. A purposive sampling method will be used to select participants. Data will be analysed using NVivo and SPSS. Thematic and descriptive analysis techniques will be applied to identify, analyse, and report patterns within data. The study is expected to contribute new knowledge by offering a novel theoretical explanation of factors influencing the government’s commitment towards cybersecurity.
Awards
Best paper
Factors Affecting how University Students Comply with Cybersecurity Measures: A Case of South Africa
Papama Mtambeka University of Cape Town
Chimwemwe Queen Mtegha University of Cape Town
Wallace Chigona University of Cape Town
Teofelus Tonateni Tuyeni University of Cape Town
Runner up: AI & Data Science track
A Machine Learning Model to Forecast Employee Churn for HR Analytics
Vengai Musanga Zimbabwe National Defense University
Colin Chibaya Sol Plaatje University
Runner up: Information Systems track
The issues, challenges and impacts of implementing machine learning in the financial services sector: An outcome of a systematic literature review.
Siphiwe Mndebele University of the Witwatersrand
Thembekile Mayayise University of the Witwatersrand
Best short paper
mobileDNA application used to explore location information
Julia Keddie University of Western Cape
Renette Blignaut University of Western Cape
Fallo Kanye University of Western Cape
Lieven De Marez Ghent University
Simon Perneel Ghent University
Best reviewers
Justin Olawande Daramola Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Tendani Mawela University of Pretoria
Priscilla Maliwichi Malawi University of Science and Technology
Lateef Babatunde Amusa Illorin University