Perceived Usefulness and Ease of Use of the Learning Management System as a Learning Tool

Jowati Juhary

doi:10.5539/ies.v7n8p23

Abstract

A Learning Management System (LMS) can be a singularly critical platform to report on students’ learning progress and to monitor students’ learning engagement. At the only defence university in Malaysia, the National Defence University of Malaysia (NDUM) adopts the LMS as a supplementary learning and teaching tool. Nonetheless, the aspiration of Malaysia to ensure that higher learning institutions actively participate in the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) has further emphasised the need for the NDUM to provide an effective LMS to the students. This paper aims at examining the perceptions of students at the Defence University on the use of the LMS. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is used as the basis for generating hypotheses and conceptual framework for the paper. Five classes of students were involved in the data collection resulting in 100 returned questionnaires. Preliminary findings highlight students’ positive attitudes towards the use of the LMS; however, there are technical issues that must be addressed to ensure that the LMS can function effectively.

Highlights

1.1 The ChallengesThe National Defence University of Malaysia (NDUM) is the youngest public university in Malaysia
The aspiration of Malaysia to ensure that higher learning institutions actively participate in the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) has further emphasised the need for the NDUM to provide an effective Learning Management System (LMS) to the students
This paper aims at examining the perceptions of students at the Defence University on the use of the LMS

Summary

Introduction

The National Defence University of Malaysia (NDUM) is the youngest public university in Malaysia. The NDUM can learn from the experiences of other 19 public universities especially by benchmarking best practices for teaching and learning. The challenges are aplenty, but the critical ones include fulfilling the expectations of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia especially when it involves the use of digital technologies. The university has already purchased a Learning Management System (LMS) from a local private company in 2009. The National Higher Education Strategic Plan, launched in 2007, outlines 23 Critical Agenda Projects (CAPs) including e-learning. The importance of e-learning for tertiary education is based on these main strategic objectives (The National Higher Education Strategic Plan Beyond 2020, 2007), 1) Developing digital repository and directory that can be utilised by all tertiary education providers, encouraging the culture of sharing resources and e-content (electronic content)

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Results