Abstract:

The implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has requested the modification of the teaching processes in order to change the manner of pedagogy and learning traits (García-Piqueres et al., 2016). The new teaching requirements have increased the use of new teaching methodologies in higher education (Al-Busaidi, 2013) for distributing, tracking and managing courses over the internet (Najmul and Azad, 2015).

Within this context, higher educational institutions face increasing pressure to cut costs and provide customers with different e-learning tools such as Moodle, Blackboard or Open Course Ware, among others, which offer a range of services (Damnjanovic et al 2013) in order to satisfy their learning goals (Cukusic, Alfirevic et al 2011). However, the introduction and establishment of these tools differ across countries and higher educational institutions.

In the case of University of Cantabria, during the last years, Moodle has become the most popular teaching tool. That is because it allows that educators can distribute learning materials, share news and other course-related information, track the progress and provide feedback to the students (Dougiamas, 2012). Students, for their part, can interact with each other, control their own learning, download course materials, submit their assignments and receive their grades from the system (Macfadyen and Dawson, 2012). Overall, this tool provides the students more flexibility in terms of place, time, and studying at their own pace (Hunget al, 2011).

Within this context, students are a valuable asset in providing feedback about their preferences and suggestions about the main utilities of Moodle as an educational resource. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to explore the effect that several specific factors suggested by previous literature (ease of use, communicativeness, accessibility, information quality, result demonstrability, perceived usefulness, satisfaction and system quality) have on students´ perception of effectiveness and behavioral intention of use of Moodle.

In order to attain the main objective of this paper an empirical study has been made. The questionnaire survey conducted to collect the necessary data to develop the study took place in February of 2017, with a final sample of 151 students enrolled during the 2016-17 academic year in the subject “Operations Management”, which is taught in the second year of Business Administration Degree of University of Cantabria, Spain. The sample error, taking an infinite population, is 3.51%, providing a confidence level of 95%.

The analysis of this information offers an insight into what factors, from the students´ perception, are likely significant antecedents for planning and implementing a Moodle e-learning system to enhance student-learning effectiveness.

Keywords:

e-learning tools, Moodle, Spain, University of Cantabria, Operations Management.