Online teaching and Learning post-Covid: An Analysis of LMS Usage and Student Outcomes Following the Pandemic

In 2020, the global higher education sector plunged into online teaching and learning within a very short timeframe with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Sri Lankan state higher education system was no exception. While the initial readiness of both students and teachers for this switch varied or, in many cases, was low, online instruction was the predominant form of teaching and learning for most of the subsequent two years. The Sri Lankan university sector resumed face-to-face teaching for undergraduates in mid-2022 but aspects of online teaching and learning remain, providing a valuable opportunity to take stock of the experiences gathered during the pandemic. This study aims to use data on undergraduate courses offered both during and after the pandemic period at the Faculty of Business in the University of Moratuwa in order to identify online teaching practices that persisted beyond the COVID-19 period and relate student interactions with these activities with academic outcomes. The dataset spans 473 students in five cohorts across six undergraduate courses and includes Moodle (the LMS used by the university) logs, data on academic outcomes, and features of the online course pages. The student level data for the selected courses are augmented with interviews with the corresponding lecturers to gain further insights into why certain learning activities were considered successful and others not. By doing so, the paper aims to identify effective learning tools and best practices that arose during the unplanned transition to online teaching from both lecturer and student perspectives. The results show that there is a continuity in the tools between the online mode during the pandemic and the post-pandemic return to face-to-face teaching with tools such as quizzes, assignment submissions, and videos/lecture recordings used noticeably more than in the pre-Covid period. The use of interactive tools increase the student engagement with the course Moodle pages, which in turn are positively associated with learning outcomes. The paper thus highlights some positive consequences of the pandemic period on education in terms of enhancing the adoption of digital tools for learning among both staff and students.