摘要：AbstractThe purpose of this study was to identify the effectiveness of a learning management system called the eLearn@USM through usability testing. The researchers used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine the usefulness and ease of using the eLearn@USM for students to participate in the forum discussion, blogs, and messaging system. In addition, the usability of the system was evaluated using heuristics by providing a set of tasks corresponding to the three sections based on scenarios. Eight university students were selected as the research sample to participate in this study. Data were collected through think aloud protocols, audio recordings, interviews, observations and a set of questionnaire and were analyzed descriptively. The findings showed that the effectiveness of the forum is moderate (mean=3.5) while the usefulness and ease of using the eLearn@USM were high with a mean value of 4.12 and 4.18 respectively. Overall, the study showed that the use of forums was more effective and attracted students’ attention. Compared to the use of blogs, the study found that the functions were similar to the forum and thus blogs were not as popular. Meanwhile the students preferred to use an external messaging system that they were familiar with rather than the one provided inside the eLearn@USM itself.
