Students’ Perspectives Towards Learning and Course Management System: McGraw-Hill Connect Platform For ECO415 (Economics)

Learning Management Systems have reshaped higher education, transforming face-to-face classrooms into blended and online environments that dismantle spatial and temporal constraints. McGraw-Hill Connect has emerged as a comprehensive digital learning and course management platform, automating preparation, simplifying course building, and providing robust analytics for instructors alongside personalized study environments for students. Integrating AI-enabled adaptive features, the platform optimizes pedagogical delivery, promotes learner autonomy, and supports diverse learning strategies. This study examines undergraduate students' perceptions of McGraw-Hill Connect at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam Campus, Malaysia, focusing on the ECO415 Economics course that has adopted the platform since COVID-19. Using a descriptive quantitative design, data were collected from 154 undergraduates across four departments. Cronbach's alpha confirmed reliability for the educational and technical dimensions. Distributions were approximately non-normal for the educational and technical dimensions; a bootstrapping procedure was applied to test independent-samples t-tests. The independent-samples t-tests revealed a significant gender difference in the technical dimension, with female students scoring higher than male students; no significant difference emerged for the educational aspect. A one-way ANOVA confirmed no significant departmental variation for either dimension. Findings indicate positive perceptions of both technical and educational value, supported by subscription growth from 2,657 learners in 2021 to 4,606 in 2025. The findings suggest that adaptive learning and AI-enabled personalization may support learner autonomy and pedagogical efficiency.