This study is a structured evaluation of the integration of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in teaching and learning activities at the University of Stellenbosch. Although anecdotal evidence exists of the success of the e-Learning initiatives at the University of Stellenbosch, this study addresses these questions in a more structured approach within the global and local higher education context in order to:
§ Improve the e-Learning project (as part of the e-Campus initiative) and other e-Learning initiatives,
§ Generate knowledge to improve our understanding of how the e-Learning initiatives work and how people change their attitudes and behaviours because of successful interventions,
§ Evaluate the institutional characteristics of successful integration,
§ Evaluate the technological environment and, more specifically, the use of WebCT as learning management system, and
§ Assess the overall progress of the e-Learning initiatives at the University of Stellenbosch.

This evaluation is done taking the broader global and changing local higher education landscape and, more specifically, the interplay of three of the main global drivers into account. The three drivers discussed are: knowledge as a driver of growth in a networked society, the information and communication technology revolution and new competitors in the higher education marketplace The first part of the study is therefore a literature review of the changing global higher education landscape, with a specific focus on how these changes are contextualised within the unique South African post-1994 higher education landscape.

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After considering the global and South African higher education landscape, the study then provides a critical overview of the status of the integration of ICTs into teaching and learning activities world wide, the possible benefits of the integration of ICTs into teaching and learning activities and the implications of these changes for the lecturers, students and the higher education institutional and technological environment.

These overviews of both the global changing higher education landscape and the integration of ICTs into teaching and learning activities serve as the backdrop for the case study and retrospective assessment of e-Learning initiatives at the University of Stellenbosch. The study contains a description of the e-Campus initiative, the e-Learning project and other e-Learning initiatives. In the retrospective assessment, the main focus of the study, I make use of quantative and qualitative methods to analyse the results of two Web surveys administered to students and lecturers who use WebCT. These results are integrated with other data sources to assess the progress made at the University of Stellenbosch.

This retrospective assessment of the e-Learning activities at the University of Stellenbosch, set against the backdrop of the global changing higher education landscape, enables me to make general recommendations for:
§ Dealing with changes in the higher education context on an institutional level as a result of the three forces discussed,
§ Integrating ICTs at the institutional level in all business process at a higher education institution,
§ Integrating ICTs in teaching and learning activities, paying attention to the enabling institutional and technological environment, as well as to good teaching and learning practice, and
§ Improving the implementation of the e-Campus initiative and, more specifically, the e-Learning project and other e-Learning initiatives at the University of Stellenbosch.

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