Due to the impact of the COVID-19 on the University’s academic year, cellular service providers have offered to zero-rate certain learning websites for all universities. This means a user can access content via their cellular service at no cost. 

What does Zero-Rated Data mean?

• Zero-Rated Traffic means that students can access specific websites without depleting their data bundle or airtime.

Which websites are Zero-Rated?

 

Which websites / services are NOT Zero-Rated:

• All Microsoft 365 websites (incl. Outlook, SharePoint and Teams)
• Library content hosted externally (Seals.ac.za has been submitted for consideration)
• YouTube
• Zoom

What does it mean:

• Links within Moodle that direct to any other external website which is not Zero-Rated (e.g. to SharePoint or YouTube) will result in costs / data charges for Students.

Which Network Providers have implemented Zero-Rated Data:

• All the Mobile Network Providers have implemented Zero-Rated Data
• Vodacom and Telkom Mobile have excluded content heavy URLs (Unitube)

Are there any Limits or Download Caps?

• Not on the Zero-Rated Websites

Whereas efforts have been made to test the zero-rated sites, we advise students to have minimal data credits (e.g. 5MB) to ensure no glitches with accessing all zero-rated sites.

This overview was released on the 23 April 2020. Please be aware that there will be ongoing changes to Zero-Rated Traffic Rules.

Web browsing and social media:

• Turn off automatic media downloads in apps such as WhatsApp
• Turn off auto play in video apps like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

Video and audio:

• Turn off video when meeting online (audio only – Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp are the preferred tools)
• Attempt to make media rich content (videos, images) optional/accompanied by text alternatives
• When viewing videos, select low resolution options. High Definition (HD) videos use high volumes of data.

Hardware operating systems:

• Turn off automatic system updates and if possible, choose critical updates only. Schedule these to take place at night.
• If your device has low data or data saver modes, activate them.

Collaboration and communication:

• Email documents in a zipped format but use email as a last resort. Content should rather be loaded on Moodle where possible. Moodle itself enables some communication methods:
  • The introduction of a standard discussion forum on Moodle courses to enable staff to address any student concerns collectively.  The Forum provides a means for students and staff to communicate as a whole class or in small groups.
    • Go to the course page and Turn editing on. Scroll to the section where you want your Forum to be displayed, click Add an activity or resource and pick Forum.
    • https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Forum_activity
  • The announcements forum is useful as a one-way broadcast channel that will reach all students; ideal for circulating important course information.
    • https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Announcements_forum
  • The Chat activity enables participants to have a real-time synchronous discussion in a Moodle course.
    • https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Chat_activity
• Moodle is zero-rated, but all content external to Moodle, like links to YouTube, Turnitin, Microsoft Teams, etc. are not even if they are in a Moodle site.
• Turn off cloud storage and synchronizing options such as Microsoft OneDrive.
• Synchronize or download content during lower rate periods, if applicable.

An example of data consumption using the Microsoft Teams online collaboration tool:

Recording is on par with data usage.

Video calls will scales to higher quality based on available internet speed and can consume higher data.