Exploring Instructors’ Practices: Data-Driven Evaluation and Insights via LMS

Learning Management System (LMS) is widely used to support teaching and learning in higher learning institutions. This platform offers valuable information about the users’ usage data and behavior in the online environment. Thus, the evaluation of such a platform is necessary to maximize its effectiveness. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of LMS by instructors to evaluate their online activities, discover user behavior and engagement patterns, and to obtain some indicators. For this purpose, statistical and visualization technique are used to analyze the courses conducted through hybrid and fully online learning modes offered in four semesters at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The LMS logs data was employed in this study as an instrument to evaluate instructors’ usage pattern and engagement level in the online courses based on 13 main variables representing the common LMS tools and related activities. Based on the data mining analysis, the study found that the usage level of LMS was low during the blended semesters and relatively high during the online semesters because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, no significant difference was found during the two years in terms of the type of LMS tools used and activities. The study also found that resources and LMS assessment tools were the most used by instructors whereas communication and collaboration tools were the least used. To conclude, the findings of this study are expected to help the university administrators understand the status of the LMS usage and the level of engagement, and to identify the necessary strategies to improve the online teaching and learning activities.