Learners’ Perspective on Critical Factors to LMS Success in Blended Learning: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

The use of Learning Management System (LMS) in academic institutions is becoming an imperative for many institutions. The success of LMS in academic institutions may be initiated by instructors’ adoption; however, LMS survives in the long run by learners’ continuous adoption and use. Consequently, the objective of this article is to examine the critical factors that influence the success of LMS in blended learning in terms of actual usage, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user satisfaction from the learners’ perspective. The study also examines how these success measures impact learners’ continuous intention to use LMS in blended learning. These critical factors are related to the major entities of LMS adoption: learner characteristics (computer anxiety, technology experience, self-efficacy, and personal innovativeness), instructor characteristics (attitude, teaching style, control, and responsiveness), LMS characteristics (system quality, information quality, and service quality), classmates characteristics (attitude and interaction), course characteristics (quality and flexibility), and organization characteristics (management support and training). Based on 512 learners, the results showed that all of these factors are critical to one or several success measures, except for learner self-efficacy, instructor online responsiveness, and management support. The results also showed that all success measures are critical to learners’ continuous intention to use LMS in blended learning.