Reconciling university teacher beliefs to create learning designs for LMS environments

Abstract

Learning management systems (LMS) serve as the primary online technology for student learning in many universities. Although they are only one 'solution', they are often regarded as all encompassing. How university teachers reconcile their beliefs about such technologies with their pedagogical beliefs remains a relatively unexplored area. This study draws on three cases from various disciplines to uncover faculty beliefs about the roles, affordances and limitations of these technologies and how each teacher adapted these to their learning designs within an LMS environment. The overall aim is to reveal the relationship between teacher beliefs and learning designs for web technologies such as LMS. This research contributes to the conceptual understandings that underpin faculty teacher development for technology integration. It provides insightful accounts of the kinds of teacher beliefs that underlie effective learning designs for quite large classes. The resultant stories themselves hold great potential to promote reflection and discourse on the use of technologies in university teaching.