AI and higher education Publication · 2026
How students actually use Moodle
Original title: E-learning Implementation and Student Experience in a Slovak University Environment
Every university "has e-learning" these days. Far less is known about what students actually do with it. So together with my co-authors we asked 130 students at our department how often they open Moodle, what device they log in from, what they want from it — and what gets in their way.
Why it is worth reading: It shows e-learning from the student's desk rather than the annual report: most logins come from a phone, and half the students dislike how Moodle looks.
What to take away
- Moodle is a given for students — 93.9% use it at least weekly, 58.5% daily. The question is no longer whether to introduce e-learning, but how to do it well.
- Students log in more often from a phone than from a computer (55.6% of logins). A course that looks bad on a phone looks bad for the majority.
- Video lectures (69.6%) and published slides (65.2%) are in highest demand. Forums and the calendar barely register.
- Three quarters (75.4%) want face-to-face teaching supported by e-learning. Only 3.1% would choose purely distance study.
Explained in plain language
Why ask the students rather than the system
Moodle can report all sorts of things about students: how many times they logged in, what they downloaded, when they submitted. What it cannot say is whether any of it makes sense to them, what they are missing, and why some of them would rather open a phone than a laptop. For that, you have to ask.
So together with my co-authors we ran a questionnaire among bachelor’s and master’s students at our department. 130 out of 337 responded, which is enough for a 95% confidence level with a 7% margin of error — a decent picture of one department, not a statement about Slovak higher education.
What we found
Moodle is everyday life. 93.9% of students use it at least once a week, 58.5% daily. Nobody said they avoid it altogether; most meet it in three or four subjects per semester.
The phone won. We assumed at least 60% of logins would come from a computer. They did not — 55.6% of logins come from a mobile device. So it pays to look at a course on a phone screen before releasing it to students.
Students want content, not community. They are most interested in video lectures (69.6%), lecture slides (65.2%) and quizzes with instant grading (60.9%). The forum (19.6%) and the calendar (23.9%) leave them almost indifferent.
Looks are a problem. Only 49.2% of respondents are satisfied with how Moodle looks. The rest are bothered by cluttered courses or dated design.
Don’t send them home. 75.4% want face-to-face teaching supported by e-learning, 21.5% purely face-to-face, and only 3.1% purely distance study.
What this means for teaching
E-learning at the department is no longer a question of “whether” but “how”. Two practical points follow quite clearly: courses need to be built for a phone, not a monitor, and what students want from Moodle above all is material — video, slides, quizzes — not discussion forums. A semester usually has 6 subjects and Moodle is used in at least half of them; the aim going forward is to raise that share.
Where this paper belongs
It is a smaller conference paper from EDULEARN 2026 in Palma de Mallorca, and I will say this about my own work openly: it describes one department and rests on a questionnaire rather than system data.
I list it here for two reasons. I have worked on e-learning for a long time, and this is one of the few papers with concrete numbers about the students of our own department. The second reason is entirely unscientific — the conference was in Palma, and Mallorca has a chapter of its own in my Journal.
At EDULEARN I am part of the furniture by now. I have been going since the very beginning — back when the conference was still starting out in Barcelona — and I have also served as chair there. It is a fixed star in my conference sky.
Show abstract
Official abstract in its original wording.
Digital transformation continues to be one of the most influential forces shaping higher education. The rapid expansion of information and communication technologies has significantly altered how universities deliver educational content, communicate with students, and support diverse learning processes. This paper presents comprehensive findings from research focused on analysing the level of e-learning adoption at the Department of Communications of the University of Žilina. The study examines the extent to which students use the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS), assesses their satisfaction, and identifies expectations regarding the further development of digital education tools. At the department, primary research was conducted using an online questionnaire distributed to bachelor's and master's students, yielding 130 valid responses. The sample size exceeded the calculated minimum, ensuring statistical representativeness. Respondents provided detailed insights into their study behaviours, preferred forms of accessing electronic materials, and the overall user experience of the LMS. The results show that 93.9% of students use Moodle at least weekly, with 58.5% accessing it daily, demonstrating a high level of system integration. Mobile devices account for 55.6% of all access, highlighting the need for mobile-optimized design and improved support for the official Moodle mobile app. Students frequently encounter a broad range of Moodle tools, especially study materials, presentation files, file-upload activities, and automated quizzes. Despite these positive findings, 50.8% of respondents express dissatisfaction with the visual layout of the platform, criticising outdated design elements and insufficient course structure clarity. Many students also request more multimedia content, notably recorded lectures and video-based instructional materials, which they consider essential for flexible learning. Overall, the findings underline the strong digitalization of teaching at the department. Students perceive e-learning as an integral part of their academic experience and value its flexibility, accessibility, and time efficiency. At the same time, they call for improvements that would enhance the system's pedagogical effectiveness, such as clearer course organization, modernised visual design, consistent use of interactive tools, and an expanded range of multimedia elements. These outcomes offer valuable guidance for strategic planning related to LMS development and contribute to ongoing discussions about how universities can strengthen the quality and effectiveness of digital learning environments.