Simplify, Consolidate, Intervene: Facilitating Institutional Support with Mental Models of Learning Management System Use

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new measurement model called depth-of-use (DOU) to evaluate faculty's LMS utilization and institutional support needs, based on large-scale data analysis at Virginia Tech.

Contribution

It proposes the DOU model for assessing LMS use, linking it to course attributes and institutional support strategies, addressing limitations of prior qualitative models.

Findings

LMS adoption driven by scale, interoperability, and access needs

DOU helps identify opportunity costs of transitioning to LMS tools

Supports evaluation of institutional support and faculty development efforts

Abstract

Measuring instructors' adoption of learning management system (LMS) tools is a critical first step in evaluating the efficacy of online teaching and learning at scale. Existing models for LMS adoption are often qualitative, learner-centered, and difficult to leverage towards institutional support. We propose depth-of-use (DOU): an intuitive measurement model for faculty's utilization of a university-wide LMS and their needs for institutional support. We hypothesis-test the relationship between DOU and course attributes like modality, participation, logistics, and outcomes. In a large-scale analysis of metadata from 30000+ courses offered at Virginia Tech over two years, we find that a pervasive need for scale, interoperability and ubiquitous access drives LMS adoption by university instructors. We then demonstrate how DOU can help faculty members identify the opportunity-cost of transition from legacy apps to LMS tools. We also describe how DOU can help instructional designers and IT organizational leadership evaluate the impact of their support allocation, faculty development and LMS evangelism initiatives.