LMS Moodle as Seen through the Eyes of Students: Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Educational Environment

Abstract

The Moodle learning management system has been successfully implemented in a variety of training courses for distance or blended learning in the educational system of higher education institutions. The study presents the results devoted to the analysis of the use of the virtual educational environment Moodle in the educational process of Baikal State University. The main purpose of the article is to consider the possibilities of the Moodle learning management system from the point of view of students enrolled in bachelor's and specialist programs in full-time format, followed by the development of recommendations to improve the quality of courses creation. The research methodology is based on the statistical analysis of the data (quantitative and qualitative) obtained as a result of the survey (empirical method). The novelty of the work lies in an attempt to look at the problem from the prospective of the end user and the electronic educational environment user, in this case, the student. Anticipating the start of the development of electronic courses that form general professional competencies at Baikal State University, the relevance of the research is beyond doubt, and its results can be useful to a wide range of e-courses creators. As a part of the survey, students evaluated their computer skills, selected the key functions of LMS Moodle that they needed to study at a university, evaluated the pros and cons of this tool and chose the preferred type of training. Conclusions were drawn about the expediency of introducing a hybrid learning model using LMS Moodle, combining various forms of distance and face-to-face learning.