A Community-University Partnership: Responding to COVID-19 in South Africa via the University of Pretoria's Community Engagement Initiative

Abstract:The University of Pretoria in South Africa's Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology presents an undergraduate compulsory Community Engagement Module course. The project orientated course must be completed within the allocated eighty notional hours. Students do at least forty hours of fieldwork and, after that, reflect on their experiences through various assignments. More than 1900 students were enrolled in the module during 2020. The students were required to engage in a community service project in which they can apply their knowledge to uplift the community. During 2020 with the COVID-19 national lockdown, students were compelled to find alternative projects to address the community's needs without leaving their homes. Projects that they identified included: developing mobile applications for Mathematics projects as well as a homelessness project, helping teachers with their online teaching, designing and creating websites and videos to assist with Mathematics teaching, and making facial masks for disadvantaged communities and clinics. The reflection piece will discuss how the module adapted to off-site community projects, the various projects the students executed, and the lessons learnt on changing the format of the module in a time of crisis.