Investigating the impact of digital technologies on the performance of learning in higher education

Abstract

The central theme of blended learning is to draw from the best practices of digital learning and face-to-face (F2F) learning to create a cohesive learning experience for improving the performance of learning. Blended learning is becoming increasingly popular across the world because of the benefits it can bring including easy and quick access to learning resources, timely feedback to students, better collaboration, and improved flexible and personalised learning. As a result, many higher education institutions across the world have introduced blended learning. Following the global trend, South Africa has been actively pursuing the development of blended learning in higher education. This leads to the passing of the e-Education policy with specific objectives for improving the development of digital learning in higher education. Despite these efforts, the adoption of digital technologies in higher education in South Africa is unsatisfactory. The performance of individual students in teaching and learning in higher education is deteriorating. This shows the need for better understanding the impact of specific digital technologies in blended learning on the performance of learning in South African higher education. The objective of this research is to investigate the adoption of specific digital technologies in South African higher education for better understanding the effectiveness of these technologies on the performance of learning. Specifically, this research aims to (a) investigate the impact of learning management system (LMS) on the performance of learning, (b) explore the impact of using instant messaging (IM) on the performance of learning, and (c) examine the relative effectiveness of LMS and IM on the performance of learning in higher education in South Africa. A quantitative research methodology is adopted in this study. It employs a pre-test and post-test method for assessing the performance of learning. The study uses a 'treatment' group of LMS + F2F and IM + F2F and a comparison group of F2F design for investigating the relationship between the use of specific digital technologies and the performance of learning in higher education. The data is collected in higher education in South Africa using paper-based surveys. Various statistical analysis techniques including descriptive statistics, t-test, and regression analysis have been used for analysing the data in the study. The study shows that the adoption of LMS and IM has a positive impact on the performance of learning in higher education. The comparative analysis study shows that (a) digital learning using LMS and F2F teaching is more effective than traditional F2F teaching, (b) digital learning using IM and F2F is more effective than traditional F2F teaching, and (c) digital learning using LMS is slightly more effective than blended digital learning using IM on the performance of learning in higher education. Such findings can help to better understand the adoption of specific digital technologies in higher education in South Africa. This study contributes to the digital learning research from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Theoretically, this study (a) explores the impact of specific digital technologies including LMS and IM on the performance of learning, (b) investigates the effect of student characteristics on the performance of learning using specific digital technologies, and (c) conducts a comparative analysis of specific digital technologies in blended learning on the performance of learning in higher education. This study is the first of its kind that conducts a comparative analysis of specific digital technologies on the performance of learning in higher education. Practically, this study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of LMS and IM for improving learning. Based on the results of this study, existing policies to encourage the adoption of digital technologies should be supported and strengthened. This study can thus (a) help government departments develop specific policies and strategies for adopting specific digital technologies in order to improve the performance of learning, (b) provide South African higher education institutions with guidelines for facilitating the adoption of digital technologies, and (c) challenges LMS and IM instructional developers and software developers for the continuous development of effective digital technologies for teaching and learning