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Emergency situations call for effective means of providing quality education. Higher education institutions are therefore required to use effective and efficient online approaches for teaching and learning which necessitate students, academic practitioners and institutions to engage and interact with each other successfully. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the importance of interaction and engagement in the use of blended learning online tools during emergency situations. The theoretical lens that informs the chapter is social constructivism which argues that learning is a social endeavour. The literature findings show that the effective engagement of students contributes to the overall quality of students’ produced experiences as well as pass rates. Furthermore, the importance of student–lecturer engagement and student–content engagement cannot be taken for granted. The right balance of synchronous and asynchronous online learning tools contributes to fruitful interaction and engagement. Online engagement seems to have many benefits as compared to conventional based engagement such as the ability of students to contribute to their teaching and learning. Despite these advantages, challenges associated with online learning such as balancing life commitments, confidence, students’ approach to learning, high investment costs in resources, motivation, competences of lecturers and students, interest of lecturers and students and efficacy of lecturers and students cannot be ignored. The authors therefore recommend that effective and efficient online learning requires the correct blend of online learning tools accompanied by the correct engagement strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the levels of information and communication technology (ICT) literacy proficiency and experiences amongst Universities of Fort Hare and Rhodes undergraduate students, on the utilization of electronic resources amongst South Africa.

This research comprised of undergraduate students from the Universities of Fort Hare and Rhodes, who registered for a three- or four-year study. The study implemented the stratified random sampling procedure. The study’s sample size was proportionally distributed amongst all the faculties common to both universities. The mixed method was applied in the study. Of the 377 administered copies of the questionnaire, 285 were returned, of which 266 were deemed useable, thereby generating a 70.6% response rate. The results were analysed using the SPSS version 26.

Findings revealed that there is underutilization of electronic resources by the undergraduate respondents due to their low level of ICT proficiency and experience.

This original research article investigated the influence of ICT literacy skills proficiency and experience on the use of electronic resources amongst undergraduate students in selected Eastern Cape Universities, South Africa.