This case study analyzes LMS use patterns in higher education, revealing diverse teaching practices and implications for educational strategies.
The widespread adoption of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) in higher education has not necessarily led to profound pedagogical transformations, raising questions about how digital technologies are actually integrated into teaching practices. This study aims to describe and map the techno-pedagogical configurations used by instructors at the University of Extremadura (Spain) to identify teaching patterns and characterize course design within a virtual campus. Using log data from 12,361 Moodle courses during the 2021–2022 academic year, a K-means clustering analysis was applied to classify courses based on their use of digital tools and resources. The analysis identified five distinct clusters ranging from traditional models with minimal LMS use (67.37%) to advanced innovation configurations (3.98%), including audiovisual-based innovation, participative traditional models, and repository-focused approaches. The results indicate that the implementation of techno-pedagogical strategies is highly heterogeneous and that courses classified as more innovative do not consistently produce better academic outcomes. These findings suggest that for most faculty, the LMS functions as digital support for traditional face-to-face teaching rather than as a driver of pedagogical transformation, highlighting the need for teacher-centered analytics capable of capturing instructional design patterns beyond mere behavioral metrics.
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Revuelta-Domínguez et al. (2026) studied this question.
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