Moodle use in South African distance education: A UTAUT-3 – based exploration on student and lecturer perspective

During the COVID-19 pandemic countries all over the world underwent hard lockdowns that limited face-to-face contact in everyday aspects of our lives. Higher Education Providers responded to ensure that education was accessible via online platforms to allow students to continue their studies during the pandemic. Due to this Learning Management Systems (LMSs) were no longer merely used for uploading or downloading content and instead was used for completing online courses including submitting assignments, conducting examinations and lectures. Thus, using an LMS became the only means of survival for many educational intuitions during the pandemic. The study used the qualitative method for collecting and analyzing data by conducting one on one interviews via MS Teams. The objective of the study was to explore which functionalities of Moodle were used for e-learning in a learning journey at a Private Distance Higher Education Institution in a COVID-19 environment and why. Based on this objective, the following research question was posed: Which functionalities of Moodle do lecturers and students use when using Moodle for e-learning in a learning journey and what are the reasons for their choice? The results revealed that despite having multiple functionalities available only limited functionalities were used by both lecturers and students. It was identified that usage on Moodle was motivated by UTAUT-3 constructs such as Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Hedonic Motivation and Facilitating Conditions. The research further revealed that students and lecturers may not have understood how to use all the functionalities available hence usage was limited. Key Words:Moodle, E Learning, Online Transition, Lecturer, Students, Private Higher Education, Higher Education