Secondary schoolteachers' instructional use of learning management systems

The aim of this large-scale survey study (N=505) is to investigate secondary schoolteachers’ instructional use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and their perceptions towards LMS. Recent research shows that LMS- also referred to as Virtual Learning Environments, Digital Learning Environments, or Electronic Learning Environments - are ubiquitous in higher (Lonn & Teasley, 2009) and secondary education (De Smet & Schellens, 2009; Pynoo, Devolder, Tondeur, van Braak, Duyck & Duyck, in press). Although a high adoption rate is observed, little is known about the related technology acceptance (Van Raaij & Schepers, 2008; Sánchez & Hueros, 2010), how LMS benefit learning (Koszalka & Ganesan, 2004), or how LMS use is related to instructor and student perceptions about teaching and learning (Lonn & Teasley, 2009). In this study, a theoretical model was developed, starting from the second technology acceptance model- also referred to as TAM (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003) and focusing on additional variables, such as Subjective norm, Personal innovativeness, number of years of LMS-use (Experience), and Internal ICT support at school level. Self-reported instructional use was measured with a 12-item scale, including items focusing on sending messages, using the chatroom, exercises, document publishing, forum, learning path, wiki, classroom reservation, and different forms of administrative support. Typical learning functions of an average LMS were included. On the base of an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, instructional LMS use could be operationalized as consisting of two constructs: administrative (i.e. focusing on distributing and management of course material) and interactive use (i.e. using the interactive features of the LMS for teaching and learning). In line with earlier TAM-research (Legris et al., 2003), the model predicted around 40% of a system’s use. More specifically, the model helped to predict 41% of Administrative LMS-use. Moreover – and this is really innovative in the field – we were also able to predict 26% of Interactive LMS use in this study. In addition to the typical technology acceptance variables, individual factors like Personal innovativeness toward IT and contextual factors such as Internal ICT support at school level were found to have a direct effect on the Interactive use of the LMS