Instructors and Students on the Same Page: Usability of Instructor Loaded Resources in LMS Sites

Abstract

Usability or ‘ease of use’ is a significant determinant of the user’s experience of an interactive system. The vast majority of university students worldwide use learning management systems (LMS) to access and interact with the course materials which instructors have loaded into the LMS. Students’ experience of their courses colors their experience of program and even of the institution. Providing a positive student experience is important to learning outcomes and to institutional competitiveness. Usability of learning resources also influences student motivation, engagement and learning. Ensuring usability of an LMS course built by instructors is important. However, a review of literature shows that the usability of instructor loaded resources in LMS is under-explored. The authors undertake a preliminary investigation of the usability of LMS instructor loaded resources. Adopting Jakob Nielsen’s ideas of mental models in usability, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with five teaching academics and four students. The results show some mismatches between student and instructor mental models, reveal some students’ expectations of course sites, justify the need for participatory approaches to LMS course design, and provide impetus for further studies.