Rating the Importance of Different LMS Functionalities

Learning management systems (LMSs) typically provide a wide set of functionalities to support students\´ learning such as file storage, forums, calendar, news, bulk mail, submission management system, groups surveys, organization, assessments, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) or scheduling. This paper evaluates and compares the importance of different LMS functionalities and analyses the effect on students\´ learning. Some results are taken from a study with more than 180 students in the context of an Operating Systems laboratory. Two LMSs have been used: "Aula Global" (the official university tool) and .LRN (which provides additional LMS functionalities). This study can be used for several applications such as: evaluation of different LMSs, supporting teachers to select more relevant and effective functionalities, as well as to understand the effect on the student learning of some functionality and deriving some guidelines about a specific e-learning methodology