Natl. J. Physiol. Pharm. Pharmacol. (2025), Vol. 15(1): 1–7

Systematic Review

10.5455/NJPPP.2025.v15.i1.1

Systematic review of teacher’s perception about adoption and effectiveness of learning management systems

Pallavi Badhe^*, Deepa Nair and Rupali Baburdikar

Department of Physiology, MAEER MIT Pune’s MIMER Medical College, Dr BSTR Hospital Talegaon Dabhade, Pune, India

*Corresponding Author: Pallavi Badhe. Department of Physiology, MAEER MIT Pune’s MIMER Medical College, Dr BSTR Hospital Talegaon Dabhade, Pune, India. Email: pallavi [at] mitmimer.com

Submitted: 28/11/2024 Accepted: 31/12/2024 Published: 31/01/2025

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ABSTRACT

COVID-19 has forced universities around the world to adopt online learning. A learning management system (LMS) is a platform for online teaching. Educational institutes are facing difficulties in adopting LMS teaching and learning methods. Research on LMS adoption is still needed for effective implementation. Studying LMS adoption can help universities to understand their teacher’s needs better. This review attempted to determine the factors that influence the adoption and effectiveness of the LMS with respect to teachers’ perspectives. We planned search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, data extraction, and data analysis. Manual search of articles from indexed journals using Google Scholar, Scopus, and PubMed Central electronic databases. The keywords used were “LMS and Adoption”, “Factors affecting LMS Adoption”, and “LMS and teacher’s perspective”. Inclusion/exclusion criteria: Only full-text journal articles published in peer-reviewed journals, in the English language, were selected. Articles with only abstracts and not full texts were excluded. Data extraction was conducted using the following themes: author name, year of publication, research approach, factors affecting adoption according to teacher’s perspective, and research context. Only qualitative information is presented from the extracted data. Anxiety and knowledge about the use of the LMS, time factors, technical challenges, perceived usefulness, efficiency payoffs, student feedback, and faculty training were important factors affecting LMS use. Factors affecting the attitude of teachers considering individual values and virtues were not well documented in the literature until 2023. Attitude depends on the values and virtues of the individual.

Keywords: Learning management system, Adoption and effectiveness, Teacher’s perception.

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Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown forced universities worldwide to shift from traditional classrooms to online platforms. In today’s world, students prefer online teaching and exams. Educational institutes insist that teachers use a learning management system (LMS) because they want to meet global quality standards. LMS is a platform to manage student enrollment, exams, course descriptions, and lesson plans (Haghshenas 2019).

Adoption of LMS is a challenge for both faculties and students because all have the habit of traditional face-to-face learning. Educational institutions are facing difficulties in adopting LMS in teaching and learning methods and achieving desirable results. Studying LMS adoption can help institutions understand their teachers’ needs for the successful implementation of LMS. Research on LMS adoption is still in its infancy (Tarhini et al., 2017). LMS adoption data are needed by university leaders, e-learning LMS developers, and curriculum developers to prepare blended learning models for medical education. After recognizing this need, this review attempted to identify the factors affecting the adoption and effectiveness of the LMS from the teacher’s perspective.

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Materials and Methods

This review was planned according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Fig. 1).

1. Search strategy
2. Inclusion and exclusion criteria
3. Data extraction
4. Data analysis
5. Result and conclusion

The search process

A manual search of articles from indexed journals was performed using the Google Scholar search engine, Cochrane, and Pub-med central electronic databases till October 2023. The keywords used in the search were “LMS AND adoption”, “LMS AND effectiveness”, “Factors affecting LMS adoption”, LMS AND teacher’s perspective”.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Only full-text journal articles published in peer-reviewed, indexed journals in English were selected. Studies on the adoption of learning management systems and factors influencing the adoption of LMS from a teacher’s perspective were selected. Articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded. Articles not published in indexed journals and studies with abstracts only or conference proceeding and not having full texts were excluded.

Data extraction

The goal of this study was to identify the factors affecting the adoption and effectiveness of the LMS from the teacher’s perspective. The data were extracted, identifying several themes to capture and report the literature findings. The data analysis was based on the following themes:

• Name of the author
• Year of publication
• Research approach
• Factors affecting adoption/barriers from the teacher’s perspective
• The research context.

The literature was independently studied by the authors. Only qualitative information is presented from the extracted data and not the quantitative data.

The factors affecting LMS adoption were sorted out according to themes such as technical factors, organizational, instructional design, time management, pedagogical factors, and attitude to use new technology (Table 1).

Research question

What factors influence the adoption and effectiveness of learning management systems in education from a teacher’s perspective?

Data analysis

The reviewed papers revealed the factors that determine the adoption and effectiveness of learning management systems from the teacher’s perspective. Thematic analysis was performed.

Fig. 1. PRISMA flow diagram.

Table 1. Factors affecting LMS adoption and effectiveness.

Technical factors: People resist to use the technology.

Organizational factors: Overcoming the idea that only traditional classroom teaching effective. Redefining the role of the teacher as a facilitator for knowledge acquisition.

Pedagogical factors: Pedagogical knowledge regarding how to teach online. Making online teaching interactive and ensuring student commitment. Developing a lesson plan according to learning objectives using LMS tools.

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Results and Discussion

It is important to understand teachers’ perspectives regarding the adoption of new technology in education for the successful implementation of such technology. This study provides information about the factors affecting the adoption of LMS from a teacher’s perspective. This will help educators and educational leaders develop learning environments using new technology and improve pedagogical and andragogical teaching methods.

We found many technical, pedagogical, and attitude-related factors responsible for the adoption and effectiveness of LMS:

1. Anxiety and lack of knowledge about the use of the LMS: The study review revealed that the faculty members’ main concerns were anxiety and lack of knowledge about the use of the technology. West et al. (2007) reported about difficulty of faculty members regarding the use of LMS in their educational practice and about teacher’s methodology, which should align with LMS. All teachers should be trained efficiently to use LMS, online lesson plans, and teaching methodology. Teachers should be taught to align LMS into their own teaching practice. For the adoption of technology in higher education, Dysart and Weckerle (2015) stated the importance of faculty development programs in terms of the use of technological tools and pedagogical approaches (Dysart and Weckerle 2015). Faculty development programs should include demonstrations, hands-on practice workshops, and corrective feedback (Bybee and Loucks-horsley 2000).
2. Time factor: Faculty members need more time to learn how to use the new technology (Walker et al., 2016). Faculty members have to spend more time learning LMS technology and preparing teaching materials. Teachers need more time to create electronic learning materials, design new teaching activities, and change the curriculum to integrate LMS.
3. Technical factor: Technology availability plays an important role in faculty members’ decision to participate in LMS like necessary computer software and internet. Al-Senaidi, et al. (2009) observed that technical support was a major obstacle to faculty members’ use of computer technology. Hence, to make optimal use of LMS, existing organizational, technical, and social barriers must be identified and minimized.
4. Social barriers: Social factors such as gender, computer usage experience, and training were identified in many studies. Social barriers defined by Zhao and Frank (2003). were the degree to which peers supported or discouraged users from using technologies in their professions (Zhao and Frank 2003).
5. Academic rank (Alshalan 2019): This study emphasized that faculty members with higher academic ranks were less likely to use e-learning tools. Professor-level people were less interested in using new technology.
6. Perceived usefulness: Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of technology were important factors for adoption of LMS. LMS helps teachers put learning materials and send messages anytime from anywhere. LMS is a platform that helps teachers manage courses and learn content to engage students and decrease planning time (Jafari 2006).
7. Student feedback and attendance: From the faculty’s point of view, student learning outcomes are important factors. Faculties observed a decrease in student attendance when material was available online (Moukali 2012).
8. Pedagogical knowledge: Teachers need pedagogical knowledge regarding how to teach online and creating lesson plans for online sessions. Teachers wanted to know how to make online teaching sessions interactive and ensure student commitment.
9. Attitude: (Alharbi and Drew 2014; Alghamdi and Bayaga 2016) To overcome the idea that blended learning is not superior or effective compared to traditional classroom training, attitude change is necessary. The redefined role of a teacher as a facilitator is crucial. Alghamdi and Bayaga (2016) concluded that attitude and intention matter in technology acceptance. Alharbi and Drew (2014) also mentioned that attitude toward usage and behavioral intention to use are important factors in technology acceptance. In the literature reviewed, factors affecting teachers’ attitudes toward learning new technology were not mentioned. How to change teachers’ attitudes about the usage of LMS was not discussed in detail in the literature we studied. New technology adoption like LMS in higher education will depend on the knowledge of teachers about technology and pedagogy. To learn new things, teachers’ attitude matters most, which depends on individual values and virtues. In our review, we identified a literature gap regarding factors affecting teachers’ attitudes with respect to individual values and virtues for the adoption of LMS.

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Conclusion

From this review study, we conclude that many factors such as technology, environment, organization, ease of use, student feedback, teaching outcomes, and pedagogical knowledge, are important for LMS adoption, but teachers’ attitudes toward learning new things affect the effectiveness of LMS.

Future scope

1. Factors affecting teachers’ attitudes were not well documented in the literature until 2023 at the individual level. Attitude depends on individual values and virtues. Future research is needed on individual values in determining teachers’ attitudes toward learning new technology. Individual-level efforts are needed to enhance the adoption of LMS and make online teaching effective.
2. More research is required to formulate new blended learning patterns for different streams according to the needs of theory and practical demonstration.

Authors’ contributions

Dr. Pallavi Badhe: Conceptualization, searching the databases, reviewing the literature, thematic analysis, writing the draft of the review article, and editing. Dr. Deepa Nair: Thematic analysis and editing of the manuscript draft. Dr. Rupali Baburdikar: Searching the articles on databases, Thematic analysis.

Conflict of interest

No conflict of interest.

Funding

No funding for the recent project.

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