Co-designing the Future of Learning Management Systems

Despite widespread adoption of existing learning management systems (LMS), critical usability and functionality issues persist, impeding user experience (UX) and learning outcomes. Adopting a user-centred codesign approach is one means to effectively deal with the usability and design issues. However, literature on the user-centred LMS codesign is sparse. In addition, user involvement in technology design in varying roles is not always a standard practice particularly in the East Asian top-down design ecosystem. Our research provides an actionable two-phase research design rooted in user-centred codesign principles, and tailored specifically for LMS to enhance their functionality, usability, and overall quality. Action research strategy, involving n= 50 postgraduate students, has been adopted in the two-phase research design, with the outcomes of each phase influencing the process and application of the subsequent phase. We begin with user research to gain an understanding of users' needs, behaviours, and preferences through various methods such as formal analysis, eye-tracking and focus group interviews to inform the design and development of LMS in the next phase. Then, use a user-centred codesign approach, dotted with a diverse set of innovative methods such as empathy-mapping, user personas, user stories, design-decision tables and low/high-fidelity prototyping to evaluate potential solutions together with users as design partners. Our findings, through the lens of Value-sensitive Design (VSD) and user-centred innovation frameworks, emphasize the importance of thoughtful LMS design. This approach that we have developed, refined and applied is relevant for other EdTech tools for use in the classroom, and we encourage other researchers to modify this approach for their own user-centred developments.