Smooth sailing

Designing effective online learning spaces

Abstract

In response to the issue of a wide variability and structure in the Learning Management System (LMS) design across subjects at the school level in an Australian university, the researchers of the study developed a research-informed LMS template. The template drew on the critical factors identified in the literature that could contribute to students’ positive learning experience in online learning spaces. The study aimed to evaluate the usability and continued use intentions of the template by trialling it in four Business subjects and applied a mixed method approach to explore lecturers’ and students’ perceptions. Results showed that both students and lecturers responded to the new template positively in terms of its usability and suggested strong intentions to use it in the future.