UK higher education institutions strive to foster learner autonomy in their students to create more successful learners, yet due to its complex nature, educators and academics continue to search for effective ways to achieve this. This case study investigates how one virtual blogging space on the Independent Learning (IL) pre-sessional module at the University of Southampton seeks to cultivate learner autonomy. This qualitative study was driven by a lack of empirical research exploring both perceptions "and" practices in social learning spaces. Investigations into both of these elements help to gain a deeper understanding of how learning spaces function, which is essential to recognising how they can meet their pedagogical goals. Whilst the blogging space was effective in fostering learner autonomy to some extent, there was evidence of conflicts in how the students, IL Facilitators (ILFs), and curriculum designers perceived the blogging space. This suggests the need for more time spent conveying the rationale of the blogging space to ILFs and subsequently students, and it also highlights the wider importance of understanding individual context. [For the complete volume, "Education 4.0 Revolution: Transformative Approaches to Language Teaching and Learning, Assessment and Campus Design," see ED607129.]