This study investigated the perceptions of 48 students in their first year in a UAE university as they pursued a blended learning course during the 2004 autumn semester. All of the students engaged in asynchronous conferencing to extend classroom activities using collaborative group discussions on the Blackboard Learning Management System. This study aimed to explore students' perceptions of online interaction and its impact on their motivation in relation to peer-to-peer interaction, instructor-to-peer interaction, sociocultural factors and other enabling and disabling motivational factors. The adopted research method was a case-study for which three sets of data were gathered via questionnaire, focus group interview and asynchronous transcripts. All three sets of data produced evidence to suggest a positive impact of peer-to-peer and instructor-to-student interaction on learners' motivation. From the findings, peers' active participation and contribution in asynchronous conferencing emerged as some of the important motivational factors. Participants' freedom to experiment with a new role that allowed them to be in control of their own learning was particularly noted. They felt that their participation in asynchronous conferencing could result in an improved performance and better grades in the final exams. Nonetheless, time pressure emerged as a constraining factor for the students
