Faculty perceptions on the effectiveness of WEDUSOFT as a learning management system: a case study of the university of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

The extent to which teachers perceive a certain pedagogic approach as being effective will influence greatly the extent to which they appreciate and adopt new innovations. This paper summarizes the results of a study that that was conducted to assess the effectiveness of WEDUSOFT as a Learning Management System (LMS). WEDUSOFT is an acronym for Web Education Software. It is currently being used as a Learning Management system for e-content development and access of online courses by students and teachers at the University of Nairobi. Twenty two teachers currently using WEDUSOFT for instruction were purposively sampled to constitute the primary sample of the study. A five point measurement scale to rate the various attributes of the system was used. The range of indicators of the LMS effectiveness generated was grouped into five categories namely: Software indicators, Hardware indicators, didactical indicators, communication indicators and information indicators. Results of the study indicated that WEDUSOFT as a learning management system is perceived as effective by the majority (83.3%) of teachers at the University of Nairobi. For instance navigatability of the system was rated quite highly. Navigatability here was defined as the capacity of the system to allow users to move about screen or pages and other aspects of the system without difficulty. 81.8% of the staff rated this aspect of the system as very good, with only 4.5% giving it a low rating. This is a very important finding upon which future initiatives regarding the development of the learning management system in the university could be built upon among other underpinning factors. In conclusion, the researcher recommends that further complementary research be conducted to analyze other factors that may influence teachers’ adoption of WEDUSOFT as a learning management system at the university.