Using an adapted, task-level technology acceptance model to explain why instructors in higher education intend to use some learning management system tools more than others

•Instructors in higher education have a low intention to use an LMS for various tasks.•The causes of this low intention vary among instructional tasks.•Causes stemming from the task include unimportance and infrequent use in practice.•Causes stemming from the LMS include usefulness and ease of use.•The causes might be valid for a specific tool/task/interface combination only.

Instructors in higher education perform some instructional tasks much more often using a learning management system (LMS) tool than other tasks. In studies that aim to explain these differences, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) perspective is missing. In this study, an adapted, task-level TAM questionnaire was used to measure task importance, task performance, LMS usefulness, LMS ease of use, and intention to use an LMS for 18 different instructional tasks among 180 instructors at a Dutch research university. The results show that low intention to use an LMS can be explained by (1) low task importance or performance, and/or (2) low LMS usefulness, and/or (3) low LMS ease of use level. The LMS tools and tasks within each of the three groups were not related substantively. This raises a question regarding whether an instructor's LMS intention level can best be explained by the combination of a specific tool, a specific instructional task, and a specific user interface.