WhatsApp utilisation at an initial teacher preparation programme at a university of technology in South Africa

Nkosinomusa Mabaso () and Lawrence Meda ()
Additional contact information
Nkosinomusa Mabaso: Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Lawrence Meda: Cape Peninsula University of Technology

No 8410560, Proceedings of Teaching and Education Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences

Abstract: All universities in South Africa are encouraged to use a Learning Management System such as Blackboard to facilitate blended learning. Despite, the availability of Blackboard at one university of technology in the country, some lecturers and students prefer utilising WhatsApp for teaching and learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate students and lecturers? perspectives about learning and teaching using WhatsApp at a university in South Africa. The study was done using a qualitative case study within an intepretivist paradigm. It was guided by Garrison, Anderson and Archer?s Community of Inquiry as a theoretical framework. Sixteen students and two lecturers who heavily use WhatsApp were purposively selected to participate in semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The study found that lecturers use WhatsApp not only for communication purposes, but to foster collaborative learning among students. Although students noted some limitations which they experience when using WhatsApp, they preferred the social media to blackboard. The study concludes that although WhatsApp is response to students? needs, it does not adequately prepare students to graduate with digital literacy skills expected by the Department of Education in the country.

Keywords: LMS; Utilisation; WhatsApp; Curriculum; Teacher (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 7th Teaching & Education Conference, London, Jun 2019, pages 112-122

Downloads: (external link)
https://iises.net/proceedings/7th-teaching-educati ... 84&iid=009&rid=10560 First version, 2019

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sek:itepro:8410560

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Proceedings of Teaching and Education Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klara Cermakova ().