Investigating end users’ satisfaction of the usage of an e-learning platform: a statistical analysis

Moodle is an Open Source e-learning platform used by a large and stable community of users and developers for web-based education. This paper analyzes the end users' perceived quality of such a platform with an explorative study. The analysis is done by using Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression, a second-generation causal modelling statistical technique. It is aimed at providing a model that describes end users' perception of the platform described in terms of Usability, Functionality, Reliability, Efficiency, Quality in Use, Users Experience, and Usage Intensity. The investigation was carried out on a sample of students who used Moodle for 6 months. This study adopts an explorative perspective and aims to analyze the main factors that affect users' perception of quality. The analysis reveals that end users are satisfied with the platform, but only Functionality and Quality in Use seem to positively affect the perceived quality.