Learning from students: Factors that support student engagement in blended learning environments within and beyond classrooms

Abstract

Technology is key to making education systems more resilient to disruptions. In the South African higher education sector, technology  will continue to play a much larger role than in the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology, however, cannot replace the  value gained through social contact and concerns about relational disengagement in curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular spaces  have been noted. Drawing on large-scale qualitative data collected as part of the South African Survey of Student Engagement, this article  explores what students consider as the most important factors in supporting their learning and development and how these  factors might be translated to technologically enhanced learning and teaching spaces. Such insights from students’ experiences could  inform blended learning and teaching spaces that leverage technology to enhance relational engagement.