An exploratory examination of students’ use of online Learning Management Systems

A Learning Management System (LMS) is an instrumental educational technology employed in the tertiary sector, offering an online platform for supporting student learning. This article studied university students’ perceptions about using LMS in their subjects. 131 participants studying in one of Australian universities responded through an online questionnaire to some open-ended questions aiming at understanding why they use or don’t use LMS as expected. A big picture framework portraying 6 main themes as to why students adopt LMS in their subjects is provided through a thematic analysis of qualitative data. This framework includes 6 themes for showing reasons for using LMS, including, support student learning, subject material and resources, assessment download and submission, flexible study, class replacement, and course communication. Moreover, a number of reasons for not adopting LMS is provided herein, such as poor use by the facilitators, non-organized material, poor efficiency and being complicated. The research findings have several implications for both practitioners and researchers.