Teachers’ Perceptions about the Impact of Moodle in the Educational Field Considering Data Science

Abstract

Today, Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Moodle facilitate the teaching-learning process, promote the organization of creative activities from anywhere and allow the active participation of the students before, during and after the face-to-face sessions. The objective of this quantitative research is to analyze the teachers’ perceptions about the impact of Moodle in the educational field considering data science and machine learning. The independent variable is the use of Moodle during the organization of new school activities and the dependent variables are the performance of the activities inside and outside the classroom and the participation and communication during the educational process. The participants are 70 teachers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The results of machine learning (linear regression) indicate that Moodle positively influences the participation and communication during the educational process. Likewise, this LMS positively influences the performance of the activities inside and outside the classroom. In particular, Moodle allows improving the educational field through the realization of the online exams and discussion forums, diffusion of the tasks and consultation of the contents at any time. Data science identifies 3 predictive models on the impact of Moodle in the educational field. In fact, the decision tree technique establishes the conditions on the use of this LMS considering the characteristics of the teachers (sex and maximum degree of study). The implications of this research allow affirming that teachers have the opportunity to create, organize and carry out various creative and active activities through this LMS. Finally, teachers can use Moodle to update the activities of the courses and build new educational spaces that allow the active role of the students during the learning process.