Effect of LMS Course Structure on Student Success in Asynchronous Online Courses

This study was designed to observe the effect of LMS course structure on student success in an asynchronous online course for teaching information technology skills to general education students at an open-access institution. We compared student success (passing grades versus failing grades) over multiple semesters in the same course designed with two different LMS structures - one designed with weekly folders and checklists and the other designed around content units. We found that students were more successful and tended to persist in the class designed with the weekly folders and checklists. Student feedback confirms our findings and provides anecdotal support. In addition, our findings can be generalized not only for online information technology classes but for any online classes.