As a provider of online blended programmes, we elicit regular feedback from students to understand more about their learning experiences and make improvements according to user-centred design principles. Feedback is collected in a variety of formats – such as focus groups, surveys and feedback forms – to inform regular reviews of programme content, and built-in feedback mechanisms and learning analytics are used to monitor students’ experience of the digital learning environment.

However, to date there has been little investigation of students’ experiences specifically within the LMS, resulting in a gap in institutional knowledge regarding how students are interacting with LMS affordances. Of particular interest to us for this project was how students use resources and perform tasks in the LMS and the relative importance of these in helping to achieve their academic goals. We felt that obtaining insights into what students value in our current LMS would not only assist us in improving the current learning environment and aligning it more effectively with students’ needs; it would also enable us to make informed decisions as to future LMS design and select new systems as needed.

To this end, we collated a very short survey to collect information on what tasks and resources students rely on most in the LMS in order to achieve their aims. Adopting an approach informed by the Top Tasks method, a tried and tested user-centred study design chosen for its simplicity and practicality, the survey simply asked students to select five of their top LMS tasks and/or resources from a list. The task list was collated via a series of stakeholder conversations across departments and programmes to ensure a wide perspective on LMS affordances and uses. This presentation discusses findings of the first iteration of this survey and reflects on lessons learned that will assist us in repeating the survey with future cohorts. Insights will be shared regarding the utility of the Top Tasks approach for user-centred design projects in digital learning environments.