Abstract
A learning management system, (LMS), is now being widely adopted to complement face-to-face lectures at universities. Although it is suggested that organizational support is important in promoting effective utilization of the LMS, such framework is not fully available at Japanese universities. The authors take Kansai University as an example, where the institution provides the support system for using a LMS, and examine effectiveness and problems by analyzing three cases of teaching practices. The authors found that although the LMS is effective in involving the students in learning, there are issues of requiring extra work for the instructors and of promoting active participation of the students. In addition, it is found that the support activities by the teaching assistants and advisory staff specialized for instructional design and the LMS support team in both helping the instructors and maintaining the LMS itself strongly affect the successful utilization of the LMS. It is important that the knowledge and experience obtained from these activities are to be utilized in faculty development efforts at the university-wide level.
