  Measuring instructors' adoption of learning management system (LMS) tools is
a critical first step in evaluating the efficacy of online teaching and
learning at scale. Existing models for LMS adoption are often qualitative,
learner-centered, and difficult to leverage towards institutional support. We
propose depth-of-use (DOU): an intuitive measurement model for faculty's
utilization of a university-wide LMS and their needs for institutional support.
We hypothesis-test the relationship between DOU and course attributes like
modality, participation, logistics, and outcomes. In a large-scale analysis of
metadata from 30000+ courses offered at Virginia Tech over two years, we find
that a pervasive need for scale, interoperability and ubiquitous access drives
LMS adoption by university instructors. We then demonstrate how DOU can help
faculty members identify the opportunity-cost of transition from legacy apps to
LMS tools. We also describe how DOU can help instructional designers and IT
organizational leadership evaluate the impact of their support allocation,
faculty development and LMS evangelism initiatives.
