Evaluation of the learning management system using students’ perceptions

Background: Learning Management System (LMS) is a web-based system designed to support teaching and learning at an institution. The capabilities of any LMS are required to be evaluated to detect the room for improvement. This study aimed at discovering the students’ perceptions of the functions of the LMS at Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS). Methods: This qualitative study included 15 students of two master programs of Biostatistics and Medical Librarianship during the fall semester of 2015. The participants were asked to write down their perceptions of the experiences they had while using the LMS and classify them based on two categories of “Advantages and Drawbacks”. Framework Analysis technique was used to analyze the views. Results: The themes emerging from the ‘Advantages’ included advantages for the students, advantages for the teachers, and advantages for both; however, those from the ‘Drawbacks’ were found to be technical and nontechnical problems. Conclusion: The major debated points in the comments comprised the students’ positive accounts of the Forum section, and their complaints of the frequent glitches recurring in the system as well as some constructive problems such as inefficient tools for typing in English. Some all-inclusive inferences concerning the methodology of the study have also been pointed out in the final section.