The Relationships among College Students’ Use of and Attitudes toward CMS ’s Interactive Functions and Their Online Learning Performance

Abstract

For over a decade, online courses have grown in higher education on both a percentage and numeric basis. With the increase of online learning in higher education, there are increasing numbers of discussions about factors concerning successful online learning or students’ achievement. This study examines the relationships among learners’ use of course management system (CMS) interactive functions, attitudes toward CMS, and online learning performance. Data was drawn from 407 undergraduate students who enrolled in a general education online course from three universities in Taiwan. The results suggest that a relationship between learners’ attitudes toward CMS and use of CMS interactive functions, but not with online learning performance. In addition, the results indicated that learners’ use of learner-self and learner-instructor/learner interactive functions are related to online discussion participation scores, and learners’ use of learner-content interactive functions is related to exam scores. Implications and future research directions are provided and discussed in an integral manner.