External Factors affecting Blackboard Learning Management System adoption by Students: Evidence from a Historically Disadvantaged Higher Education Institution in South Africa
- Authors: O. Matarirano , M. Panicker , N.R. Jere https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8966-2753 , A. Maliwa
- Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/3304 , vital:43306 , https://doi.org/10.20853/35-2-4025
- Description: Learning Management Systems (LMS) have the ability to transform learning experiences of students in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). In addition to the developmental benefits, LMS assist teaching and learning during student unrests, a common feature in historically disadvantaged institutions in South Africa. Regardless of the benefits of LMS platforms such as Blackboard, the utilisation by university students at the institution under study has been very low. Applying cross sectional electronic survey, this study identifies the key factors influencing technology adoption, as identified in the General Extended Technology Acceptance Model for E-Learning (GETAMEL), behind perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness in the adoption of technology. A sample of 125 students at a historically disadvantaged institution in South Africa was considered for the study. Data was collected to understand their perceptions on use of Blackboard Learning Management System (BB) for learning. Data was analysed with SmartPLS statistical analysis software. Results show that perceived ease of use of BB is influenced by computer self-efficacy, computer amusement and computer anxiety whilst perceived usefulness of BB is influenced by subjective norm and computer enjoyment. The findings also show computer experience to significantly affect computer self-efficacy and computer self-efficacy to affect computer enjoyment. The article presents the external factors that affect the usage of LMS at one of the historically disadvantaged HEI in South Africa. HEI leadership has to prioritise the identified external factors to increase chances of acceptance and utilisation of Blackboard by learners.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Conceptualising an epistemically diverse curriculum for a course for academic developers
- Authors: Quinn, Lynn , Vorster, Jo-Anne E
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66601 , vital:28970 , https://dx.doi.org/10.20853/30-6-717
- Description: Pre-print , In this conceptual article we use Luckett’s model for an epistemically diverse curriculum, Kitchener’s levels of cognition and Maton’s concepts of knowledge and knowers to analyse a curriculum of a postgraduate diploma in higher education specifically for academic developers. We describe three meta-level frameworks which we offer to our participants to make explicit the pedagogy of the course. Our main argument is that a course which prepares participants to practise in the complex contemporary higher education context requires them to engage with specific kinds of knowledge, ways of thinking and ways of being so that they can contribute towards addressing the numerous and vexing teaching and learning challenges in their institutional contexts. We argue that analyses such as these help to make explicit the organising principles of a curriculum to the curriculum designers themselves who are then able to use the insights to strengthen the design, pedagogy and assessment of their courses. Keywords: academic development, pedagogy.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Is economic impact a good way of justifying the inclusion of foreign students at local universities?
- Authors: Snowball, Jeanette D , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67470 , vital:29098 , http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v20i3.25593
- Description: Pre-print , In the debate surrounding the costs and benefits of having foreign students at South African universities, the financial contributions of foreign students to their host economies is sometimes cited. This article reports the results of a comparison between the economic impact on the Grahamstown economy of the spending of foreign and local students at Rhodes University. It finds that the spending patterns of both types of students are remarkably similar and that the somewhat higher economic impact of foreign students is largely as a result of their propensity to choose the more expensive residence accommodation, rather than as a result of greater average spending generally. We suggest that economic impact studies should be used with caution when making the case for continued public subsidy of goods with significant non-market values and that opportunity costs should also be considered.
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- Date Issued: 2006