Describing Emergency Remote Teaching using a Learning Management System: A South African COVID-19 Study of Resilience through ICT

TL;DR

This study examines how South African primary schools used Learning Management Systems during COVID-19 to support remote teaching, highlighting affordances and constraints faced by students, teachers, and schools.

Contribution

It provides a detailed case study of LMS implementation in primary education during a crisis, focusing on affordances and constraints specific to this context.

Findings

LMSs served as notice boards and parent communication tools.

The digital divide and device costs were major constraints.

Many schools did not fully utilize LMS capabilities.

Abstract

In an effort to counter the spread of COVID-19 many schools were forced to shut down. Primary schools in South Africa were forced to shift to emergency remote teaching abruptly relying on using a Learning Management System (LMS) to aid their teaching. LMSs helped primary schools build resilience to cope with unexpected events. An opportunity rose to study the affordances and constraints faced when using a LMS for remote teaching, specifically for primary school learners ('Gen Z') - a largely ignored area of research. Through a case study of 6 schools, this research describes the affordances and constraints of the LMS supported teaching system in use in primary schools. Affordances related to schools, learners and teachers while constraints were classified from a financial, technological, school, learner and teacher perspective. Noteworthy affordances included using LMSs as notice boards and satisfying parents, the key stakeholders. In terms of constraints, the digital divide was a recurring theme while device and data costs were consistently a limitation. There were many cases of schools not realizing the full potential of LMS usage. This research should be useful for primary schools wanting to use a LMS for their teaching.