Barriers to a wider Implementation of LMS in Higher Education: a Swedish case study, 2006-2011

This article investigates barriers to a wider utilization of a Learning Management System (LMS). The study aims to identify the reasons why some tools in the LMS are rarely used, in spite of assertions that the learning experience and students’ performance can be improved by interaction and collaboration, facilitated by the LMS. Lecturers’ perceptions about the use of LMSs over the last four years at the School of Engineering, University of Borås were investigated. Seventeen lecturers who were interviewed in 2006 were interviewed again in 2011. The lecturers’ still use the LMS primarily for distribution of documents and course administration. The results indicate that their attitudes have not changed significantly. The apparent reluctance to utilize interactive features in the LMS is analyzed, by looking at the expected impact on the lecturers’ work situation. The author argues that the main barrier to a wider utilization of LMS is the lecturers’ fear of additional demands on their time. Hence, if educational institutions want a wider utilization of LMS, some kind of incentives for lecturers are needed, in addition to support and training.

Re-conceptualizing the Global Digital Divide

The article seeks a re-conceptualization of the global digital divide debate. It critically explores the predominant notion, its evolution and measurement, as well as the policies that have been advanced to bridge the digital divide. Acknowledging the complexity of this inequality, the article aims at analyzing the disparities beyond the connectivity and skills barriers. Without understating the first two digital divides, it is argued that as the Internet becomes more sophisticated and more integrated into economic, social, and cultural processes, a “third” generation of divides becomes critical. These divides are drawn not at the entry to the net but within the net itself, and limit access to content. The increasing barriers to content, though of a diverse nature, all relate to some governance characteristics inherent in cyberspace, such as global spillover of local decisions, regulation through code, and proliferation of self- and co-regulatory models. It is maintained that as the practice of intervention intensifies in cyberspace, multiple and far-reaching points of control outside formal legal institutions are created, threatening the availabil- ity of public goods and making the pursuit of public objectives difficult. This is an aspect that is rarely ad- dressed in the global digital divide discussions, even in comprehensive analyses and political initiatives such as the World Summit on the Information Society. Yet, the conceptualization of the digital divide as impeded access to content may be key in terms of ensuring real participation and catering for the longterm implications of digital technologies.