This study examines students' perceptions and preferences for Blackboard at a South African public university. When the South African government, driven by COVID-19, announced the closure of schools in March 2020 for high school learners, home-schooling became the only option despite challenges such as lack of internet access, family support and…

The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of virtual tools on EFL learners' performance in grammar courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This experimental study compared a group of students who took a grammar course remotely via the Blackboard platform during the COVID-19 pandemic to a control group who took the same course in…

Learning management systems (LMSs) are ubiquitous in higher education, yet few studies have examined changes in student engagement online with year level. Using data mining of LMSs, we examined the frequency and timing with which first, second, and third year science students accessed the various LMS resources. We compared online access with both…

This paper analyses meaning-making processes in a blended setting--face-to-face interaction and web forum--purposely created for collaborative learning activity. The analysis focuses on one pair out of 14 dyads. The dyad comprises two female students aged 17 and 18 who attended a Brazilian third-year state secondary school. We envisioned…