Higher Education Teachers' Understanding of Flexibility and Enhancement in a Learning Management System

Abstract

In as much as Learning Management Systems (LMS) are environments for learning, they are also design-spaces for higher education (HE) teachers to assemble content for the coherent presentation of a course. In the age of the app, where there is software for any number of digital prosthetics, LMS have attempted design-flexibility by supporting third-party plugins to load within the LMS interface. This is not a new idea and has been mastered in audio and image editing with incredible results in terms of creativity. LMS providers have been slow to respond to digital progress, and current LMS versions seem unable to fully support third-party flexibility; despite the opportunity third-party apps provide to enable creativity and enhancement. This preliminary study has shown that HE teachers, in one institution, do not experience seamless integration of plugins, are unable to keep pace with change and are wiling to have fewer choices of tools with a greater focus on proficiency of them.