Abstract:
Universities have made a considerable investment in the use of Learning Management
systems (LMSs) to facilitate their teaching learning processes. However, these LMSs are not used by the academic staff to their fullest capabilities. To address this issue, this study
investigated the factors that affect the adoption of LMSs such as Moodle amongst academic teaching staff at the UNZA. The study used the survey research design, that was aimed at collecting information from respondents that would help in establishing the factors that contribute to the low adoption rate of Moodle amongst the academic teaching staff at the UNZA. A meta-analysis was conducted in order to identify an appropriate theory or model to use in the study. TAM 2 was identified as the appropriate theory for the study because it gives a clear picture of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of technology. In addition, a usage log of the courses that utilize Moodle at the UNZA was sourced from CICT and quantitative research approach was employed in order to make conclusion based on the responses provided by respondents who participated in this study. The data collection tool that used was an online questionnaire on LimeSurvey designed using TAM 2. This study analyzed the data using Microsoft Excel. The results indicated that majority of courses at the UNZA did not have active Moodle sites. Based on these findings, it can safely be said that the current adoption rate of Moodle at the UNZA is very low with only a total of 158 sites active out of the 2295 courses. This research contributes to the already existing literature in the knowledge of adoption of e-learning technologies. In that it aims at investigating the factors affecting the low adoption rate of Moodle by the teaching staff at the UNZA based on the Technological Acceptance Model 2 (TAM 2). However, the limitations concerned were time limitations where the researcher had limited time to collect more data. This led to low or non-response from certain schools. Other than that, the researcher’s knowledge of LimeSurvey was limited. The other limitation was the nature of the data collection tool, many respondents found that most of the questions did not apply to them. There should be more sensitization programs for the adoption and use of Moodle. Organizations should support their employees in using e-learning technology for innovation purposes and the usefulness of e-learning technology should be enforced. This study presents a new direction in the field of research
towards the adoption of e-learning technologies. The study also shows the factors that affect the low adoption rate of Moodle at the University of Zambia and shows reasons for the current condition.
