What is MyUNISA?
Choosing UNISA as your distance learning university means that you will be studying alone at home, without the benefit of a physical lecturer or fellow students whom you are able to bounce questions and ideas off. MyUNISA is UNISA’s answer to this dilemma in that they wish to create a learning environment where students are able to study and work together using an online platform.
MyUNISA is a portal which students can log into which gives them access to their account details, as well as access to the subjects they are registered for currently.
In these subject areas you can upload your assignments, see notes from the lecturer, get due dates and even download your study material. You also have access to a forum that is only for you and students currently studying the same subject you are.
What is Together We Pass?
Together We Pass is an online platform helping students to feel part of the greater student community. By sharing relevant private resources, UNISA assignments, online revisions and ideas via the study groups and discussion forums, Together We Pass students are achieving better results and feeling more positive and in control of their studies.
In recent years we also have also added subjects experts into our Premium and Gold groups, and have developed our own resources such as study notes and exam packs to help students prepare for their exams.
Together We Pass is all about keeping students motivated, making sure they understand all their coursework, and that they pass their exams. Its a long road to your degree, and we want to walk that road beside you.
What is Together We Pass?
Together We Pass is an online platform helping students to feel part of the greater student community. By sharing relevant private resources, UNISA assignments, online revisions and ideas via the study groups and discussion forums, Together We Pass students are achieving better results and feeling more positive and in control of their studies.
In recent years we also have also added subjects experts into our Premium and Gold groups, and have developed our own resources such as study notes and exam packs to help students prepare for their exams.
Together We Pass is all about keeping students motivated, making sure they understand all their coursework, and that they pass their exams. Its a long road to your degree, and we want to walk that road beside you.
MyUNISA Benefits and Weaknesses
MyUNISA is an extremely useful platform that can add a lot of value to your distance-learning experience.
Benefits of MyUNISA | Weaknesses of MyUNISA |
| Students have direct control over the course they are studying through UNISA. | MyUNISA does not allow students to easily share private resources such as past papers and notes with fellow students. |
| Gives lecturers the opportunity to engage with students. | Many lecturers do not use the forum to actively engage with students. |
| Students can download UNISA course material, submit assignments, update personal details and find out exam results – this is especially helpful when there are problems/ strikes at the postal service. | It does not allow students to compare UNISA assignments without exposing their answers to everyone. This systems often leads to cheating and plagiarism as students put their answers on the forum for everyone to see. |
Provides advice on:
| MyUNISA doesn’t assist students in working through past papers with classmates. They do provide the past papers, but these are given with out the memos (answers). |
| Guides students through the stages of studying with UNISA, from the initial sign up through to graduation. | The system gets overloaded at busy times (such as when UNISA assignments are due). |
| Students using MyUNISA get academic support, online support and access to student services. | Not enough UNISA lecturers are actively keeping an eye on and responding to discussions. |
| MyUnisa facilitates the student through practical steps on how to learn effectively, how to manage |
How does Together We Pass fit in with MyUNISA?
Remember that Together We Pass is not affiliated with UNISA. We are simply offering a service to UNISA students to help them pass. Together We Pass study groups are aimed at complimenting, and not replacing the MyUNISA services.
We offer private resources, UNISA assignments, study group discussion forums and revisions to support your MyUNISA experience and ensure your UNISA exam results are exactly what you are hoping for. Click here to see more about joining our online study groups.
Remember, UNISA has 400,000 students to support. That means that individual support has to be very low. That is where we strive to support students – we have daily contact with a lecturer (in Premium and Dragon groups) and we make sure that we can be contacted in a variety of formats, from on the forum, to telephone and even WhatsApp.
We know that not having anyone to ask when you don’t understand is incredibly difficult. So join us and make sure that you get the constant support you need to succeed.
Learn more about Together We Pass private resources or Create a free account.
The Differences Between MyUNISA and Together We Pass:
MyUNISA is the official UNISA website for students, and it offers you a host of wonderful services. It gives you access to your student account history, your assignment marks and even your study material. You can upload all your assignments directly here, without relying on the post. Each subject has its own forum and even has posts and notifications from your lecturer. It is very formal, however is not yet successfully being used by all lecturers to fully engage students.
Together We Pass is a service that tries to make your student life easier, friendlier and more personal. It is like Facebook for students, and has many fun features like being able to friend someone, or send a private message. You can personalise your account, and choose an avatar. On a more serious note it gives daily access to lecturers (in Premium and Dragon) and helps with extra resources, student and lecturer discussions and exam packs. It allows you to compare assignments without any cheating. It sends you notices every time someone puts a post into your study group (which can be put to daily digest, weekly digest or even turned off if you dont want so much communication.
Lets explore the differences between MyUNISA and Together We Pass. We have put together a comparison in the table below:
MyUNISA | Together We Pass |
| Fees for using MyUNISA are included in your terms study fees for each subject. | Pay for the service you choose, either standard, gold, premium or The Dragon. |
| Four to six past papers plus being able to download your study guide and this term’s annual tutorial letters. Some subjects offer additional resources such as discussions slides or other material that the lecturer feels will assist you with our studies. | Access the largest library of private resources available to students anywhere. Students have been sharing study notes, past exam answers and a host of other private resources for the past five years through our service, so for many subjects we have the best private resources you can get anywhere. You can also browse what we have in our online shop before you join to make sure you are happy.Remember that with us, you sign up for free and only pay for the study groups you wish to join. Remember that UNISA has asked us to take down the turorial letters and past papers, and Together We Pass no longer shares this with students. |
| Difficult to contact your fellow students, as you can only post on the forum and can’t contact anyone directly. | We encourage direct communication, and you can direct message your classmates or discuss issues on the discussion forum. There is also a form on the left hand wall of every page that allows you to instant chat with our staff here in the office in case you are stuck, or need a question answered immediately. |
| Impersonal, with most subjects having no lecturer or moderator to answer questions inside the subject forums. | We are the only service to offer a subject expert (lecturer) to help shape discussions, answer general questions and keep our student community thriving (remember they are only in our Premium and Dragon groups). Our staff members are available via phone, email and instant messaging via our site every day during office hours. We take customer service extremely seriously and are always here to help! |
| No ability to reach anyone personally for help with registration or course specific queries. | Four-hour turnaround time for queries, and you can phone us any time in business hours to speak with us immediately. We also have an instant messaging form to get in touch on the website located on the left hand wall of the site. We give same day response to any queries in our forums. |
| Allows you to manage your own studies. | We aim to support you in your studies by offering additional private resources, reminders of due dates, encouragements to keep working and participating, and in general, just keeping you on track. We also have lecturers in our Premium and Dragon groups. We take your studies seriously! Please know that we view your degree as essential to your life plan and your career. We endeavour to make your studies that much easier so please get in touch if there is anything we can help you with. |
Most students are studying part-time as they work, and thus, a degree can easily take 6 to 10 years to complete! Slogging on alone is not conducive to keeping up morale for the long haul – so we invite you to join our online study groups and get the help and support you need to get you through.
Check out the Together We Pass private resources, assignments, revisions and study group discussion forums.
If you want to know how it works, need help registering with us, or learning how to use our shop or any other part of our service, we have step by step guides and even videos to help you. We hope to see you in our study groups shortly.
Struggling to get in contact with your UNISA lecturer?
We have a page of UNISA contacts to help you find the right person. And you can contact our staff any time for assistance by email or phone. We have learnt a thing or two about UNISA over the years, and are always willing to help students navigate their way through their UNISA studies.
Written by: Leonor Breytenbach
Last updated: 30 May, 2018