An examination of the impacts of a Learning Management System: A Case from Jamaica

Using a mixed methods approach, this paper examines the pedagogical and organizational impacts of a new Learning Management System (LMS) in a Jamaican university. Overall results show positive impacts on learning and teaching, and engagement across stakeholder groups. However, the LMS seems to have a dual impact in relation to access to resources and pedagogical practice. While the LMS offers flexible access to resources and creates new opportunities for learning and delivery across the University’s urban and rural locations, it also allows for new forms of control of previously ‘free’ and flexible academic practices. The study highlights an inherent tension between institutional requirements and taken-forgranted freedoms associated with academic practice. This study adds to the nascent research on LMS usage that moves away from the typical technical and financial aspects of such systems to identify usage patterns and implications for all the main stakeholders.