Learning Management System Success: Increasing Learning Management System Usage in Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Learning Management System Success: Increasing Learning Management System Usage in Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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学习管理系统的成功：增加撒哈拉以南非洲高等教育中学习管理系统的使用。
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发表时间：
2015
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通讯作者：
J. Mtebe
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作者：
J. Mtebe
学习管理系统（LMS）现在安装在撒哈拉以南非洲的大多数高等教育机构。这些基于网络的LMS旨在支持教学和学习活动。它们包括各种功能，使教师能够共享学习材料，以及提供与学生同步和异步的互动（Vovides等人2007）。该地区最广泛采用的LMS是Blackboard，Sakai，KEWL和Moodle（Unwin等，2010）。机构使用LMS补充传统的面对面教学，教师通过互联网开发和共享数字学习材料。在这种情况下，学习管理系统被用作学习材料的电子储存库（Vovides等人，2007年）。其他机构，特别是那些提供远程教育的机构，一直在将LMS与传统的面对面授课相结合，以便跨越不同的地理边界覆盖更多的学习者（Andersson & Gronlund 2009）。Adkins（2013）预测，2011年至2016年，非洲的LMS采用率将以每年15%的速度增长。世界银行（WB），瑞典国际开发合作署（SIDA），联合国开发计划署（UNDP），非洲开发银行集团（AfDB）和美国国际开发署（USAID）（Farrell & Isaacs 2007）等几个国际机构的支持进一步促进了更多的采用。例如，非洲开发银行向非洲虚拟大学（AVU）提供了1560万美元的赠款，以支持该地区的各种电子学习举措（Adkins 2013）。这笔赠款计划帮助31个合作机构建立电子学习中心，培训内容开发人员，并部署LMS。同样，非洲高等教育伙伴关系（PHEA）支持撒哈拉以南非洲的七个机构实施各种电子学习项目，包括学习管理系统。他们设法提高了学生的学习成绩，降低了学生的辍学率，并提高了学生对所提供课程的满意度（Naveh等人，2012年）。撒哈拉以南非洲的机构一直在采用这些标准，以获得与其他地方的同行类似的好处。然而，撒哈拉以南非洲的情况不同，各机构面临的挑战与发达国家机构面临的挑战不同。因此，这些系统的采用和实施并不能保证机构将享受类似的好处，这些机构在发达国家。因此，本研究旨在调查是否采用LMS是实现其潜力，通过分析文献发表的LMS使用从整个地区。文章最后提出的战略，可以帮助机构更有效地利用他们的LMS。由于资源有限，LMS实施的任何失败都可能很高（Heeks 2002），因此确保在撒哈拉以南非洲实施LMS是成功的非常重要。由于LMS是一种专注于教学和学习的特殊类型的信息系统（Wang et al. 2007），因此使用此类指标并不奇怪。在这方面，可以用不同的方式衡量某一机构采用学习管理系统的成功程度。一些研究通过测量学习者对系统的满意度来衡量LMS的成功（Wang 2003; Shee & Wang 2008; Tella 2012）。…
INTRODUCTIONLearning Management Systems (LMS) are now installed in the majority of higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. These web-based LMS are intended to support teaching and learning activities. They consist of various features that enable faculty members to share learning materials as well as providing interaction with their students both synchronously and asynchronously (Vovides et al. 2007). The most widely adopted LMS in the region are Blackboard, Sakai, KEWL, and Moodle (Unwin et al. 2010).Institutions use the LMS to supplement traditional face-to-face delivery where faculty members develop and share digital learning materials via the Internet. In this case, the LMS are used as an electronic repositories of learning materials (Vovides et al. 2007). Other institutions especially those offering distance education, have been combining LMS with traditional face-to-face delivery in order to reach more learners across various geographical boundaries (Andersson & Gronlund 2009).In light of these benefits, the adoption of LMS by higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa has continued to increase in recent years. Adkins (2013) predicted that LMS adoption will grow at the rate of 15% per annum between 2011 and 2016 in Africa. The increased adoption is further facilitated by the support of several international agencies such as the World Bank (WB), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), African Development Bank Group (AfDB), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (Farrell & Isaacs 2007). These agencies have been committing various resources to support institutions in adopting and implementing various LMS.For example, AfDB provided a grant of $15.6 million to African Virtual University (AVU) to support various eLearning initiatives in the region (Adkins 2013). The grant was planned to help 31 partner institutions to build eLearning centers, train content developers, and deploy LMS. Similarly, the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA) supported seven institutions in sub-Saharan Africa to implement various eLearning projects including the LMS.LMS have been successfully implemented in many institutions of developed countries. They have managed to improve students' learning performance, reduce students' dropout rates, and they have increased students' satisfaction with offered courses (Naveh et al. 2012). Institutions in subSaharan Africa have been adopting them in a bid to gain similar benefits as their counterparts elsewhere. However, the context of sub-Saharan Africa is different and institutions face different challenges from those faced by institutions in the developed countries. As a result, the adoption and implementation of these systems do not guarantee that institutions will enjoy similar benefits as those institutions in the developed countries.Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether the adoption of LMS are fulfilling their potential through analyzing the literature published on LMS usage from across the region. The article concludes by proposing strategies that can help institutions make more effective use of their LMS. It is important to ensure that LMS implemented in sub-Saharan Africa are successful given the fact that any failures of LMS implementations are likely to be high on account of the limited availability of resources (Heeks 2002).MEASURING LMS SUCCESSStudies of LMS adoption tend to use similar metrics to those used to measure information systems success. Since LMS are a special type of information systems focusing on teaching and learning (Wang et al. 2007), it is not surprising that such metrics are used. In this regard, the success of an LMS adoption at a given institution can be measured in different ways. Some studies have measured the success of LMS through measuring learners' satisfaction with the system (Wang 2003; Shee & Wang 2008; Tella 2012). …