learning management system

Content is the main dimension of any curriculum. Despite the fact that there are various tools and technologies for producing e-content, there is still no comprehensive framework and guideline based on the science of education to help produce or select content tailored to the learning goals. The purpose of this study was to develop the educational standards and their indicators based on Bloom-Anderson’s taxonomy, so that we could select or design the appropriate and effective content for any type of educational purpose, applying appropriate technology. A qualitative research approach with the phenomenological design has been used. The research population included all instructors in the academic e-learning centers, from whom 12 instructors were selected through snowball purposeful sampling, up to the data saturation. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Analysis of data and determining the categories and standards were done using Corbin and Strauss's coding technique and Maxquda software. The results led to the development of 2 educational standards and 21 necessary indicators based on Bloom-Anderson’s taxonomy to design or select the appropriate and effective content in the domain of e-learning. The results of this research could help the educational designers and technologists in designing learning environments and they could also help the managers and evaluators of the e-learning apps to evaluate the e-learning environments.

With the increasing use of virtual education, it is necessary to examine the experiences of students from the context of this type of education as the main audience. Therefore, the present research was conducted in order to investigate the opportunities, strategies, background conditions and damages of Farhangian University's e-learning system with a qualitative approach and phenomenological method. The scope of the study was the students of Farhangian Shahid Beheshti University of Euclid and the participants were selected purposefully using the intensity and snowball sampling method. A semi-structured interview was used to collect information. After interviewing 13 people and reaching the saturation point, the obtained data were analyzed according to Strauss and Corbin's coding with MaxQuda software. The results of the research showed that various physical and bodily injuries and reduced interaction between professors and students as injuries; Not needing a specific place and time to attend the class and get more information and supplement the lesson with web browsing as opportunities; Creating a dynamic class by constantly involving students in the class process as practical work and active attendance of students with group discussions, reducing class time and using other tools such as images, chat boxes and having questions and answers and fully using the capacities of The learning management system of educators for holding classes was identified as the most important solutions, and the speed and costs of the Internet for students, the way the professor teaches, and using the same teaching methods, and generally speaking, were identified as background conditions.

The purpose of this research was to understand the lived experiences of Farhangian University faculty members regarding effective teaching in the learning management system.The current qualitative research was conducted with a phenomenological approach. data were collected using targeted sampling and in-depth semi-structured interviews with twelve faculty members of Farhangian University active in the lms system academic year 2021-2022 and analyzed based on the Colaizzi model. After extracting and thematic categorizing, effective teaching was identified in four main themes and fourteen sub-themes. The principles of effective teaching in the theme of technological principles included the selection of technology-oriented teaching strategies, electronic lesson plans, providing appropriate assignments and providing feedback in the system and pedagogical principles including teacher-student interaction, students' participation with each other, attention to individual differences and research-oriented teaching. Barriers to effective teaching in the context of technological barriers included ineffectiveness for some courses, lack of ICT experts, limited access to the Internet, and lack of infrastructure and pedagogical barriers included lack of required competencies and low validity of evaluation results.Considering the nascent nature of teaching in the LMS, effective teaching is realized when the necessary competences, attitudes and knowledge regarding effective teaching are developed in the professors.

 Nowadays, the learning management system is one of the key tools of university education systems. This system increases the efficiency and learning power of students because it activates the students' mind and facilitates the understanding of knowledge. In addition, the use of learning management systems increases students' motivation for active learning and improves their self-confidence in academic exams. Also, these systems reduce the duration of teaching and the workload of teachers and are effective on students' visual literacy.The design of learning management systems is the result of the collaboration of educational experts and software engineers, who identify the required capabilities and the expected service quality by considering various psychological, social, cultural, educational, and technical aspects. These capabilities and qualities are the basis of the software design of the system that is ultimately used by students and teachers, and the success and failure of the system largely depends on their satisfaction. Therefore, knowing the expectations of students, teachers, and other users using learning management systems and then implementing these expectations in the design and development of these systems is of key importance.In Farhangian University, education is based on physical and online education, and some university courses have been always held online. Therefore, designing and implementing effective online education software is a high priority for Farhangian University. In addition, the use of information and communication technologies in education is one of the values highly highlighted in the document of Fundamental Evolution of Education.We identified only a few research that has been conducted to study the expectations of Farhangian University teachers from learning management systems. To fill this gap, in this article we aim at understanding the expectations of teachers of Farhangian University from the learning management systems. Our main objectives are to find out to what extent the teachers feel satisfied with using these systems, what software features of these systems are highly requested by the teachers, what are the main defects the teachers have observed in these systems, and what are the main values of using these systems for education. 

The research method of this research is based on the qualitative research method of content analysis with comparative categorisation approach to identify and represent the experiences and expectations of Farhangian University teachers from the university's learning management system. For more interaction with the teachers, the interview method was used to gather their expectations, in which they answered the questions of a pre-designed interview. The interview questions were finalized after applying the opinions of some experts in software, educational sciences, and educational technology. The statistical population of the research was all teachers and lecturers of Farhangian University in the academic year 1402-1401. In this research, teachers who had practical and useful experiences in organizing online classes as well as who were experts in this field were invited for an interview, and 12 colleagues declared their presence for the interview. The authors conducted the interview process in parallel and then jointly completed the data forms. Qualitative interviews were conducted in accordance with its standards in a time between 30 to 60 minutes, physically on site or online on the platform of social networks. First, the aim of the interview and its topic were explained to each interviewee and then the interview was conducted. Considering the semi-structured nature of the interview, in addition to the pre-designed questions, other related questions were also asked to clarify the meaning of the answers during the interview. Also, the authors used some examples when there were ambiguities between the interviewer and the participated teachers.In this research, to analyze the data obtained from the interviews, three types of coding including open coding, axial coding, and selective coding were used. In the open coding, the main sentences related to the topic of the research were extracted from the data forms and recorded as primary codes. Then, the created codes were placed in a category based on the similarities. In the stage of axial coding, the primary codes and categories that were created in the open coding were compared with each other and similar items were merged and finally the axial categories were extracted. Then, for similar codes that were placed in the same category, by doing this process, several main topics were obtained that show the main basis of the interviews. If there is an equivalent standard or term for a subject in the field of education or software engineering, that equivalent and definition has been used in the article. Selective coding, based on the results of open coding and axial coding, defines the final framework of categories. The synthesised results then are reported in this article.

 The results show that half of the teachers are satisfied with the learning management systems, three teachers are with relative satisfaction, and the remaining three are unsatisfied. Regarding the expected software features from these systems, we categorised the identified features into two main categories namely generic and user-interface-specific features. Because the participants in the interview do not have specialized knowledge of software engineering, in responding to their expectations from the systems, they expressed a combination of capabilities, quality attributes, and other requirements. Therefore, capability in this research means the general requirements of the participants, which can be a functional requirement, non-functional requirement (quality attributes), software capability restrictions, or a combination of them.Assisting teachers during the online class, learnability, usability, adaptability, error detection and prevention, facilitating the interaction between teachers and students are examples of the generic software features expected by the teachers. The participants also expect that the system provides them information of any events and tasks being progressed. In addition, they expect the system should be flexible and extendable enough so that they can add new tasks and generate new reports.In terms of the user-interface-specific features, the teachers expect the systems provide hedonic, simple, and customisable user interface. They also expect easy access to the system features. In addition, better content representation is another requirement the teacher expressed. The defects observed by the teachers are also categorised in generic and user-interface-specific defects. As for the generic defects, the teachers reported that it is not easy to learn the learning management systems. They also complained about the audio and video latency during the online classes. Another defect reported is that performing some tasks is time consuming which requires going through several steps. Poor and busy user interfaces are main defects reported by most of the teachers regarding the interface of the learning management systems. Inconsistent representation of the application in the mobile devices is another user interface defect. We have also understood that better time management, improved social interaction, and decreased stress of using information and communication technologies for education are the main values indicated by the teachers as the consequences of using the learning management systems. Being respectful and self-disciplined are other values reported by the teachers.

 It can be concluded that despite the good features of learning management systems and the teachers’ relative satisfaction with them, there is a need for these systems to be flexible according to the needs of users and give the teachers more control on the education process. Also, interaction with students and features that improve people's participation in the education process are among the most important expectations of teachers from these systems. Moreover, the user interface of learning management systems is very important for teachers because it provides their interaction with students. Teachers expect to be able to adapt the system and especially their user interface according to their needs and add new features at the lowest cost.
We also synthesized several design guidelines for the system developers. The system should provide support for both expert and novice teachers. Expert teachers expect more customization capabilities and novice teachers expect more advice and automatic error handling. Moreover, the system should help the novice teacher to be experienced in using the system continuously. As each teacher has his/her own teaching strategy, another guideline is to design the system so that each teacher takes control on the education and teaching process individually.Since an online learning system is an interactive application, its user interface design is very important. User-friendly and customisable user interface which nicely represented in different devices with different resolutions is a high priority guideline. This design guideline becomes even more important when we know that most of the students use their mobile phones for participating in online classes. We finally highlighted the importance of considering values in the design and development of learning management systems. In these systems, capabilities such as speaking in turn, the need to obtain permission to speak, remaining silent when others are speaking, and being neat during online presentation are aspects of respect. Their accomplishment, therefore, requires relevant software features. Moreover, the interaction between teachers and students necessitates establishment of ethical rules and standards to be respected by the users and the software. The privacy and security are two important subjects that requires more attention in learning management systems.

The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the acceptance and use of the learning management system (LMS) technology among students of Farhangian University of Mashhad using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). This study adopted a correlational design. The statistical population of the study included 2150 students of Farhangian University of Mashhad. The study sample consisted of 350 students selected through convenience sampling. The UTAUT questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in AMOS. The content and face validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by six university faculty members. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was also determined using Cronbach’s alpha, which was at satisfactory level. The results showed that performance expectancy, and effort expectancy had a significant positive effect on behavioral intention. In addition, the results revealed that social influence had no significant effect on students’ behavioral intention and use behavior. The facilitating conditions and behavioral intention had a significant positive effect on students’ use behavior in using LMS. Also, effort expectancy and performance expectancy were found to be the indirect positive and significant predictors of students’ use behavior in using the LMS through the mediating role of behavioral intention. According to the results, it can be concluded that a clear understanding of the behavioral intention and use behavior of Farhangian University students in using the LMS can help university administrators and decision-makers provide students with an efficient and comprehensive system of learning.

According to the significant evolution of learning systems in recent years and the prevailing conditions of human life due to the epidemic of COVID 19 virus, the importance of e-learning in the learning management system is undeniable. This has made the role of teachers in education systems more prominent than ever. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to provide an intelligent adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) to evaluate the performance of teachers in e-learning system, especially in academic institutions.

In terms of method, this research is descriptive and from the objective point of view it's applied. In this research, a quantitative approach has been used to design a model for evaluating the performance of teachers in the e-learning system. The statistical population of the study included experts in the field of information technology management of the Islamic Azad University of Yazd Province. Based on the pre-determined specifications, it includes 29 people. Due to the limited number of under study elements, a questionnaire was sent to all elements of the statistical population where 17 experts answered the questions. In this study, an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) method has been used to analyze the performance of teachers in educational institutions.  

This system is based on 4 main factors (teaching learning process, teaching method, research orientation and individual capabilities) and 16 sub-factors in the teacher evaluation process. The designed ANFIS system classifies the performance of teachers into four predefined categories: teachers need for training, teachers with good skills, teachers who are very good and teachers who are excellent.

The designed system is a useful tool for evaluating teachers and providing appropriate feedback on their strengths and weaknesses to improve their performance.

E-learning is an important topic  in the educational settings and students are  significant prerequisites of it,  who have an essential role for the acceptance and effective use of e-learning management systems so that knowing their attitudes and mental models is essential for the successful implementation of such a method. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the Adoption Rate of studentschr('39') mental model with the structure of the learning management system of the University of Tehran using the card sorting method.   

Research had qualitative approach with card sorting and interview tools. Usabilitest software, descriptive statistics, distance matrix, and hierarchical clustering were used to analyze the data. Sample consisted of 15 postgraduate students at Tehran  University (second semester of the academic year 2019-2020) that were interacting with the learning management system (Moodle).

Findings indicate that out of 42 cards examined, the status and classification of 36 cards (85%) in the learning management system were fully consistent with the participantschr('39') mental model and only in some cases such as "Help" and" Recent lessons referred" according to their mental model, users expected these sections to be placed in other categories. As well as labeling; 66% of users found the "settings" tag more appropriate than their "preferences" and the function of some, such as "medal management", "medal preferences" was unclear to them. Also, the categories presented in the three sections: "User Profile", "Quick Access" and "My Lessons" were approved by users.

The results show that the degree of adaptation of studentschr('39') mental model to the structure of the learning management system of the University of Tehran is at a desirable level.

The lack of convergence and synergy in the field of higher education of universities, the reduction of social capital and the weakness in the efficiency and sicial - cultural approach in the scientific environment , the reduction of the quality of higher education, and the lack of ranking and mission- oriented universities can be the most important weaknesses in the higher education system that many of them will be overcome by utilizing by the capacities of social networks. Therefore , the purpose of presenting this article is to design and explain the social network devemopment model in the country's education system so that, while reviewing the theoretocal framework and modern mothods in the development of new learning systems , new research and intrepreneurship , strategies for achieving effective strategies in this communication has also been studied and analyzed accurately and finally an effective model of social network development in the coyntry's higher education system has been presented. This research, using a developmental - practical approach, follows the data steategy of foundation and using the Delphi model , the proposed model has been validated by experts. The results of the research indicate that there is a four- step model consisting of establishment of network utilization, the establishment of the learning system, the development of a learning management system abd its establishment. However, the effects of laws and regulations , user attributes , and infrastructure domains as field variables will affect the relationship betweendesignated stages. Key words: social networks, Education management system , Learning management system , Higher education system