Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate lecturers’ perceptions and use of a Learning Management System (LMS) (Blackboard) at a rural university in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Blackboard is one of the most popular LMSs worldwide but is, unfortunately, underutilised in higher education institutions (HEIs) where lecturers reduce its functionality to a platform for course content by ignoring its other tools and functionalities. There is a paucity of information on lecturers’ perceptions on using Blackboard as a LMS in higher education in the Eastern Cape. In order to address this lack of information, a quantitative research study was designed with a purposive sample of 141 male (51.1%) and female (48.9%) lecturers (mean age of 46.78±10.48) from all six faculties on all campuses at a rural university in the Eastern Cape. Lecturers were employed on average for 7.67±6.10 year at the university. Participants completed an online questionnaire that consisted of a biographical section and a second section about their perceptions of the use of Blackboard. The data analysis following the submission of these questionnaires considered the frequencies, means and standard deviations. It should be noted that the 46 items in section 2 of the questionnaire were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis, while group differences were determined with independent samples T-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Relationships between variables were calculated with Pearson’s product moment correlations. Reliability of the sub-scales was determined with Cronbach’s alpha as a measure of internal consistency...
M.Ed. (Information and Communication Technology Education)