Adult Learners’ Perspectives on Their Engagement in a Hybrid Learning Postgraduate Programme

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of Statements per Question.

	Module Content		Module Delivery		Module Assessment		Total Statements and % per Category
Engagement Category	Positive content	Negative content	Positive delivery	Negative delivery	Positive assessment	Negative assessment
Intellectual	2	0	0	0	3	0	5 (3%)
Academic	4	14	3	10	20	18	69 (36%)
Professional	7	0	3	0	0	0	10 (5%)
Personal – Student	2	16	5	3	0	2	28 (15%)
Personal – Lecturer	1	0	17	1	0	0	19 (10%)
Social Peer	0	1	6	1	0	0	8 (4%)
Social Lecturer	0	0	1	2	9	1	13 (7%)
Other	16	8	2	2	2	9	39 (20%)
Total Number of Statements	32	39	37	19	34	30	191 (100%)

Table 2. Coding Categories and Sub-Categories of Participants’ Perceptions on the Aspects of the Programme Module Content.

Main Category (Element)	Sub-Category	Examples (Positive)	Examples (Negative)
Personal engagement	Student’s abilities and skills; Student’s expectations; Student’s assumptions; Student’s knowledge; Student’s personality; Other attributes such as: goal-setting, self-efficacy, awareness of intention, resilience, and persistence	–	Student abilities and skills: “First year: overwhelming…” “ClickUP thing too much.” “Difficult because English is not my first language. Needed time to translate.” Student expectations: “… there were two assignments for this module.” “… it took longer to learn.” Student knowledge: “A lot of information, especially for [module name]…” Self-efficacy: “The content looked difficult and challenging.” “Difficult to grasp the different content.” “Content challenging.” “… a lot of work for part-time learners.” “… it was demanding.”
	Lecturer’s abilities; expectations; assumptions; skills; knowledge; personality	Lecturer personality: “Encouraging and motivating.” Lecturer skills: “[Lecturer’s name] provided hands-on steps for everything on how to use clickUP [manual].” “I did not experience any problems. [Name] cleared up anything that wasn’t clear.”
Academic engagement	Student knowledge	–	“There should be more new articles that make use of new terminology, and not old terminology (e.g., mental retardation).”
	Student skills (computer, academic, note-taking, writing, referencing, search skills, etc.)	Academic search skills: “Given resources… don’t have to look for it yourself.” “Valued practicals.” Computer literacy skills: “Gain more knowledge on technology.” “I did not struggle with clickUP.”	Academic search skills: “Some recommended articles were missing.” “Difficult to find more readings. Did not know how to search for readings.” “… difficult to find the quiz answers.” Computer literacy skills: “Repeat clickUP training session for students who still struggle to understand.” Student note-taking skills: “Would like to receive content at the on-site week. Print everything out. Can’t make notes on documents when it is electronic.” “First year challenging… you get used to the system.” Academic planning skills: “I like to work faster. It would have been great if all study guides were available from the start. My work set-up changed and it created new stress to get the content late/r.”
Intellectual engagement	Student critical thinking	“Opened my mind and thinking, challenged me to think.”
	Student’s awareness of own values, beliefs, attitudes of discipline	“… capacitated us” “The module content has been easy and good but has been difficult last year because everything was new.”	–
Social engagement	Social involvement with peers	“Helps us to share information and be able to teach or communicate with others.”	–
	Social involvement with lecturers	–	“I am not getting help based on the fact that as students we are in different provinces.”
Professional engagement	Students’ application to work context	“Relevant to my context and in general. Can apply what I have learnt.” “… could use as direct reference.” “Could apply a lot of it practically.”	–
Other		–	Poor Internet access: “Not able to download the content (Internet bandwidth issues).” “I had a problem with [Internet] signal.” “Internet very expensive. In some rural areas no Internet access. This made it difficult to complete my assignments in time.” “I struggled to have library access (via Internet) where I live.” Electricity problems: “I had a problem with electricity.” “Load shedding.” Personal challenges: “Personal circumstances made it difficult, but I still made it.” Financial challenges: “… we have to have money for print-outs.”

Table 3. Coding Categories and Sub-Categories of Participants’ Perceptions on the Aspects of the Programme Module Delivery.

Main Category (Element)	Sub-Category	Examples (Positive)	Examples (Negative)
Personal engagement	Student’s abilities and skills; Student’s expectations; Student’s assumptions; Student’s knowledge; Student’s personality; Other attributes such as: goal-setting, self-efficacy, awareness of intention, resilience, and persistence	Student expectations: “I like that it was practical in the on-site weeks. Gave me a better idea of what the course is about.” “I liked the practical assignments and approach.” Self-efficacy: “The programme as a whole motivates us as educators (students)….”	Student expectations: “The module delivery looked good but still more things should be included, like the assignment format, more questions to help us prepare for the assignment and exams, and a summary of notes.” Self-efficacy: “One week for on-site is too little. It is difficult to learn new terminology and then have to write a test. Add two more days to on-site week.” “I felt overwhelmed because of quantity of work and little time. Tired too. At the end of the day not that bad because we passed.”
	Lecturer’s abilities; expectations; assumptions; skills; knowledge; personality	Face-to-face teaching: lecturer skills: “Excellent delivery by different lecturers in the on-site week.” “Information was clear.” “Like the way the class was presented. Hands-on practicals. Multi learning materials.” Lecturer expectations: “Lecturers explained assignments to us” Lecturer personality: “…. Liked the way the lecturers were accessible… Got to know our lecturers’ personalities.” Lecturer knowledge: “Lecturers competent in their field.”	“All lecturers are qualified but some do not speak professionally to students – also via e-mail.”
Academic engagement	Student knowledge	–	–
	Student skills (computer, academic, note-taking, etc.)	Various skills: “I found the packaging of material very interesting. Liked that it was all electronic.… Not only reliant on a computer…” Computer literacy skills: “The use of technology is encouraging and forced us to use technology. Also, convenient to use technology, for example, our cell phones.” Student planning: “I liked the introductions in the study guide (under each study unit).”	Student computer literacy skills: “I struggled with the technology.” “I would like to receive a hard copy of content—if not, it can be given on disk or CD.” “Challenging if not technologically skilled.” “Maybe there must be some sort of training that we can use clickUP with ease.” Student planning: “The module delivery was fine but runs for short period of time. I have Internet access on my phone but read slides at my workplace.”
Intellectual engagement	Student critical thinking	–	–
	Student’s awareness of own values, beliefs, attitudes of discipline	–	–
Social engagement	Social involvement with peers	“Working together in groups. Multidisciplinary—work with a speech therapist—this was positive.” “Able to share what we have learnt with each other.”	Face-to-face learning: “I did not appreciate group work because not all students contributed.”
	Social involvement with lecturers	“Telephone dictionaries [staff contact details].”	“Some lecturers need to be more approachable.”
Professional engagement	Students’ application to work context	Face-to-face teaching “Lectures were practical.” “… I enjoyed the fact that we were given practical examples—made functional items as part of course for learning.” “Promote guidance to educators, so we can support our learners.”
Other		Hybrid learning environment: “I found the packaging of material very interesting. Liked that it was all electronic…. Not only reliant on a computer….” “Relevant teaching strategies.” “Various teaching methods used, for example, group work and pair exercising.”	Internet access: “Experienced network difficulty with [service provider] This is a challenge.” “I live in [region] and rely on a cell phone network that had minimal signal strength. It was distressing for me to complete the quizzes. One possible solution could be to provide us with multiple attempts and being able to reset attempts and increase time to complete the quizzes.”

Table 4. Coding Categories and Sub-Categories of Participants’ Perceptions on the Aspects of the Programme Module Assessment.

Main Category (Element)	Sub-Category	Examples (Positive)	Examples (Negative)
Personal engagement	Students’ abilities; expectations; skills; assumptions; knowledge; personality	–	Self-efficacy: “I found the quizzes stressful—I felt it was too much. I was challenged.”
	Lecturers’ abilities; expectations; assumptions; skills; knowledge; personality	–	–
Academic engagement	Student knowledge	“Educators (students) are getting an opportunity to learn more.” “Assignment questions suggested to us, which helped us score better marks.” “I saw the quizzes as a learning and assessment tool.” ‘ClickUP quizzes promote more studying.” “We have various assessments so we do more reading.”	Student knowledge: “One quiz marked me wrong when I was right/Quizzes marked correct answer incorrect in quiz.” “Exam was challenging.” “We could not always go back to previous question and I would have liked to do that if I realise later about a mistake that I’ve made while completing other questions of the quizzes.”
	Student skills (computer, academic, note-taking, etc.)	“Liked multiple attempts to do ClickUP quizzes and to receive mark and feedback immediately.” Searching skills: “Enjoying research part [module]….” Planning and time: “… could do in my own time.” “We had enough time to prepare for assignments.” Various skills: “We were provided with various opportunities to gather marks, such as quizzes, tests, during on-site weeks, and our assignments. The more assessment opportunities helped us to obtain a better year mark as with only one assessment opportunity.” Student computer skills: “Encouraged us to fall in love with technology due to having to go online to do activities.” “Module assessment helps one to learn more and acquire skills.” “The programme helps one to become technologically advanced, more like computer literate.” “The module assessment on clickUP was some kind of development in technology.”	Academic writing: “I did not know how much to write.” “My assignment came out as plagiarised, although I did not plagiarise. I had to change my assignment.” “Plagiarism. I had to phrase work in another way as more than five words next to each other is regarded as plagiarised.” Searching skills: “I experienced difficulty with my assignment.” Referencing skills: “I don’t know how to do referencing.” Planning and time management skills: “All parties should adhere to timelines, but there are human factors and we live in different contexts.” “For some modules the quiz was too long.” “Too many questions. (Have a few questions at a time.)” “…. I feel the time frame is too short for us to complete the quizzes. Maybe the quizzes should have a day or two for completion.” “With working it is difficult to manage an assessment at home.” Student computer skills: “I could not submit on Turnitin and had to e-mail my assignments to the programme manager.” “I battled to submit my assignment on clickUP.”
Intellectual engagement	Student critical thinking	“Online quizzes to prepare for different assignments. The questions helped me to see what the module is all about.” “Enjoyed the assignments—forced me to approach a school with my knowledge.”	–
	Student’s awareness of own values, beliefs, attitudes of discipline	–	–
Social engagement	Social involvement with peers	–	–
	Social involvement with lecturers	“Lecturers are always willing to help.” “The assessment was good.” “Valued the feedback of various assessment opportunities.” “I appreciated the intensive marking and I received feedback that was helpful. It helped me do better in the second part of the assignment.” “I appreciated the comments on our marked assignments as it helped us to prepare better for the exams.” “Quick feedback on our assignments.” “The lecturers were patient with us.” “We received assistance from lecturers when we experienced difficulties completing the quizzes, for example, when we experienced load shedding.”	Lecturer support: “I would like to receive feedback for my assignment earlier.”
Professional engagement	Student’s application to work context
Other			Financial: “Financially demanding.” “I am far from Pretoria and had to write off-campus exam.” “Off-campus venues were very expensive.” Internet access: “The module assessment was very difficult to complete because I do not have Internet access at home and have to go to an Internet café.” Electricity: “Load shedding causes problems.”

Figure 1. Adapted framework for adult learners as based on Pittaway (2012).