Abstract

This paper aimed to identify faculty perceptions of VLEs and their students’ attitudes towards e-learning in the time of the pandemic. Towards this aim, the researcher used two surveys in a descriptive study to collect data from 47 EFL instructors and 103 students regarding a variety of constructs about e-learning effectiveness and attitudes, especially in the Corona virus time. Results indicated that the instructors’ perceptions of the Blackboard LMS were greatly positive as to establishing efficient teacher-students’ communication, facilitating students’ comprehension, boosting up their instrumental motivation, engaging them in active, interactive learning, and creating instructor-students’ rapport. The students’ attitudes survey revealed that, overall, students had positive attitudes towards using Blackboard LMS during the pandemic due to convenience of use, platform availability, system quality and quality of e-learning over Blackboard. Other reasons include users’ personal factors such as their satisfaction tendency, their self-confidence initiated by the VLE of Blackboard, their enjoyment of learning in this medium, the interesting and useful learning activities and tools as well as their staying safe in this mode of learning in the pandemic time. Other factors identified include the learners’ willingness to continue learning via Blackboard and their expectation that full-time learning online would replace traditional face-to-face learning. The study concludes that teachers’ and students’ perceptions and attitudes towards VLEs, with particular reference to Blackboard, could be valuable to faculty and institutions in their quality assurance efforts and the development of promising online courses and programs in EFL to satisfy the needs of students. Eventually, the study discusses suggested improvements and implications for e-learning on the Blackboard Lean platform as perceived by students and teachers alike to protect students through online education as an alternative to traditional education during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in present and future waves of the pandemic.

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