Learning Management System (LMS) for Academic Inclusion and Learning Agency: An Interpretive Review of Technoprogressivism in ODL Instructional Technology Policy

Abstract

Literature frequently describes how ineffective implementation of instructional policy frameworks can make distance learning a lonely and unrewarding academic pursuit, characterized by high student drop-out rates, high failure rates and academic exclusion. In trying to mitigate this catastrophe, academic departments in distance learning institutions utilize learning management systems (LMSs) to stimulate students’ learning experiences. In keeping with techno-progressivism, the researchers (and authors of this paper) turned to extant documentary policy and literature to review – qualitatively – how the University of South Africa’s (Unisa’s) Open Distance Learning Policy (ODLP) promotes academic inclusion and learning agency as cornerstones of student success and social justice, especially in an unequal society like South Africa. The findings revealed the following: 1) Unisa’s ODLP position has the impetus to influence the deployment of the LMS to promote academic inclusion; 2) Practical means of promoting inclusion were mirrored in the provision of manual or electronic learning material, computer laboratories and free internet connectivity in regional centres across all nine provinces of South Africa, as well as in the provision of laptops for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)-funded students, 30 gigabytes of free monthly mobile data to all students, and assistive technologies for students with disabilities; 3) Practical utilization of an LMS to foster self-regulated learning occurred through problem-based individual activities supplemented by asynchronous demonstrative learning material (e.g. audio, video), while collaborative learning agency was enabled through e-tutoring, which afforded students the opportunity to interact with e-tutors and their peers about the learning content; 4) Drawbacks in the use of the LMS stemmed from the insufficiency of assistive learning technologies that are required for students with disabilities to participate fully in online learning, and a corpus of students’ irregular attendance at and participation in e-tutoring discussions and their projection of a negative attitude towards the e-tutors.

ICT Tools for Open Educational Resources Used in an Open Distance E-learning Institution in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Era

“…These knowledge management systems, otherwise known as "e-learning" (Chen and Fong 2015, 431), are capacitated with the agility to administer the facilitation of synchronous and asynchronous interactions between lecturers and students. In the 4IR era, many HEIs' operations include virtual rooms, a space where mutual participation among students as well as between students and instructors not only precipitates student agency and selfefficacy, but also enables high-impact knowledge sharing and creation transactions (Alshahrani 2018;Imhanzenobe, Adejumo, and Ikpesu 2021;Nkambule, Ngubane, and Mncube 2023). Therefore, the study reviews literature based on the following themes emanating from the knowledge management cycle by McIntyre, Gauvin, and Waruszynski (2003): knowledge management and 4IR for OER, people responsible for OER, and applications used for adoption of OER.…”