Abstract
Higher education institutions have seen a shift in online teaching and learning methods over the past years, accompanied by an increase in the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS), for enabling and supporting online and blended teaching and learning.
Even though many universities in South Africa and around the world are using a LMS, there is not much knowledge on how lecturers use LMS as a pedagogical enabler for teaching and learning. In addition, Dlalisa and Govender (2020) state that universities all over the world have made investments in LMS’ to enable online and blended learning, but pedagogical participation by lecturers is constrained by a variety of factors. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate and gain a deeper understanding of how lecturers in a HEI use Blackboard™ as a pedagogical enabler from their perspective. The study employs a constructivist-interpretivist approach, adopts the idea of an LMS as a socio-technical system, and adopts a qualitative case study methodology. The main question of the study: How do lecturers at a South African HEI use Blackboard™ as a pedagogical enabler?
The research participants were purposefully selected teaching academics from the Faculties of Humanities and Science. In total, the study had a sample of 300 participants, of which 200 were from the Humanities and 100 from Science. Data was collected using an online survey and semi-structured interviews. The survey response rate was 20% (n=61) of participants out of 300. That is, 42 from Humanities and 19 from Science. In addition, the researcher interviewed 6 participants from the Faculty of Humanities and 4 from the Faculty of Science.
The study adopted the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Framework to investigate the views of lecturers in the way they use their TPACK to adopt Blackboard as a pedagogical enabler. The TPACK framework requires lecturers to teach their subject by integrating relevant content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical knowledge (PK) as well as TPACK to facilitate subject learning among students.
The main findings suggest that Blackboard™ adoption takes place within a particular institutional context with a long history of LMS adoption and change and that lecturers consider it to be a valuable platform that can enhance their pedagogical approaches and improve the overall learning experience for students. However, there is room for
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improvement and a need to address challenges in promoting student engagement with the platform and how they can save time using the LMS, Blackboard™, and choosing appropriate tools to achieve the learning outcomes. The study concludes that the HEI needs to invest in continuous support and training for lecturers so that the LMS can serve as a pedagogical enabler.
Keywords:
Pedagogy, LMS, TPACK, Teaching and Learning, Online modules