The perspective of students and faculty members on the efficiency and usability of e-learning course at Ajman university: A case study

Abstract

While there is much in the literature on the usability of the Course Management System (CMS) itself, there is little that looks at content of these CMS. This study aims to investigate the usability of the e-learning courses in Ajman University from the perspective of students and the faculty members. The e-learning usability evaluation questionnaire developed by Zaharias (2009) has been used as the main instrument for data collections in this study. Semi-structured interview is another instrument that has been used to investigate the e-Learning usability evaluation. This form has been used to collect the qualitative data from the faculty members. Research results revealed that the attitude of the majority respondents toward the usability of e-learning courses in Ajman University in general is strongly positive. Most of the participants in this study view the e-learning courses in Ajman university easy to use, easy to learn and have usable user interface. However, the first year students hesitate to express firm opinion about usability of e-learning courses in Ajman University. The study concludes and recommends that there is a great need to have more training for freshman students on how to use Moodle, in addition, advanced training sessions for instructors to improve their skills on how to use Moodle more effectively and utilize its all features to make more effective usage and easier ways of ongoing interaction with all students.