Book Review: The Distributed University for Sustainable Higher Education

Dr. Upasana Singh is the Academic Leader and a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Information Systems and Technology at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Westville Campus, in Durban South Africa. She is also appointed as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Victorian Institute of Technology, Australia. Her academic qualifications from South African-based Universities include a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of South Africa, a Masters and a B.Com Hons degree in Information Systems and Technology, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Natal respectively. She has over 15 years of teaching experience in IT-related subjects such as e-Commerce, IT Consulting, IT Strategy, Programming, and Research Methodology. She has a keen interest in Educational Technologies and has served as the lead researcher in a number of international research projects on Digital Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. Her research profile includes 2 Edited books, 8 Journal Papers, 5 Book Chapters, and 15 Conference Papers in internationally accredited conferences. Besides serving as a keynote speaker at over 25 international conferences and webinars, she is the convener and Chair of the International Conference on Digital Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (digiTAL 2K). Dr. Upasana Singh completed her Fellowship in “Teaching Advancement in Universities” (TAU), from the CHE in 2019. Since 2018, she has championed over 1500 academics in South Africa, Mauritius, India, and Malaysia, in the adoption and design of digital teaching and assessment. Her first edited book brought together researchers from multiple disciplines, sharing their research on topics on Management, Information Technology, and Public Governance in an e-World. She recently published an edited book that contributes to the scholarship on the creative adoption of technology to support online teaching, learning, and assessment by providing a platform to validate the need for, and strengthen, the academic voice, in the continuing transition in higher education. She is currently editing 2 books in the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, one focused on Quality Assurance in the online space, and the second on Digital Teaching in the Future.  During the pandemic, she has developed 3 conceptual models emerging from her research on the transition to online learning for academics, students, and females. She has been the recipient of a number of research grants, the most recent being a substantial grant from the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa, for a collaborative research project focusing on Digital Capital at South African Higher Education Institutions (HEI)s. She completed the Higher Education Leadership and Management Programme in 2021. She was nominated for the Distinguished Teachers Award in 2021.