Abstract

The advent of covid-19 era led to shift in delivery of curriculum via online. Several e-learning software’s such as MOODLE, Google classroom and blackboard were implemented in the institutions of higher learning in Africa to enable continuation of teaching and learning. However, very few studies in the developing countries have focused on evaluation of the e-learning platforms to understand the factors that influence students’ satisfaction. Further, there are little efforts to use the updated model of ISO 25010 to derive attributes or factors that can determine software usability also known as interaction capability. This study aims to investigate the students’ satisfaction towards e-learning software usability. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 423 students in a public university in Kenya. Data was collected through an online questionnaire, which had questions on the five selected sub-attributes of interaction capability namely appropriateness recognizability, learnability, operability, user error protection and user engagement. Five hypotheses were defined and their analysis indicated that all sub-attributes apart from operability had significant influence on the students’ satisfaction of e-leaning platform hence their usability. A multiple regression model was derived and showed that the user engagement and user-error protection sub-attributes had the highest positive influence on students’ satisfaction with the e-learning software as they increase students’ satisfaction with 12.5% and 10.6% respectively. Therefore the study posits that institutions of higher learning should give more attention to development of user friendly platforms and systems that guard against errors to increase e-learning usability hence higher levels of satisfaction with students.

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