Masters Degrees (Industrial Psychology)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Industrial Psychology) by Subject "Adult learning -- Western Cape (South Africa)"

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    An investigation of adult learner engagement in a blended learning environment
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12) Segoe, Mbalenhle Tshiamo; Adams, Samantha; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the rapid change in the economy and social realm, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic, have drastically altered the workplace. This actual and paradigmatic shift has emphasised the importance of adult working professionals taking responsibility for the development of their current skills, knowledge, and competencies. This may require them to become adult learners when participating in employment development programmes that are often presented in a blended learning format. To ensure that adult learners have a deep meaningful learning experience in the course, the learning programme must be designed, developed, and executed with adult learners in mind. The purpose of this research was to investigate adult learners’ (working professionals) experiences of engagement in a blended learning programme and to explore which elements of the programme were supportive of and or challenged their engagement experience. To explore the extent to which adult learners experience engagement in a blended learning environment, a qualitative research design, guided by an interpretive paradigm, was employed to elicit and examine adult learners’ experiences of engagement. Data were collected through open-ended semi-structured interviews, from a convenience sample of n = 10 adult learners partaking in blended learning programmes at a Higher Education Institution in the Western Cape. The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2013), which yielded that the factors that influenced, supported and challenged the adult learners', specifically the working professionals, engagement experience were a) learning interest, b) interacting with their peers and instructors through various platforms online and face-to-face, c) receiving support from family and external tutors, d) having a sense of community, e) technology such as WiFi and online learning platforms, as well as technological issues such as software updates and having loads-shedding, and f) time to balance their careers and personal life and to prioritise their studies accordingly. The results of this research study offer programme developers and educators insight into the factors that bring about adult learner engagement, as well as how to ensure that blended programmes are designed, developed, and implemented effectively into the course. This will further ensure that future adult learners are provided with learning experiences that will guarantee deep meaningful engagement.