Abstract:

The use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Blackboard are on the increase since the COVID-19 outbreak. Universities such as the University of Johannesburg (UJ) were already using Blackboard before the COVID-19 era. The LMS aim to increase student engagement and interaction providing flexibility during their studies. The systems can also be utilized to monitor student activities and their final performance on assessments. Investigating for example student online class attendance, download of recorded material activities, time and day students log-on and time of submission of assessments can be used to monitor students. Prior to the intense use of LMS such as Blackboard it has been a challenge to monitor student activities for each course/ module they are undertaking. In this paper a quantitative research approach was adopted, and a statistical analysis of the time spent by students accessing material on Blackboard was investigated for the Engineering Management (MGTMNA3) with 100 students and Mineral Resource Evaluation (MREMSA3) module with 17 students at their third-year level of study. The average time spent per student was compared with the overall performance on assessments for each individual student. The study found that there is poor correlation between student grades and the time spent in hours on Blackboard for both the modules investigated. Whether students spent less time or more time on Blackboard, it had no influence on the students' overall performance. It can be concluded from this study that the time spent on Blackboard by students has no significant influence on students' overall performance on their modules.

Keywords:

Learning Management Systems, Mining Engineering, Mine Surveying, Blackboard, COVID-19, student assessment, time spent.