The amalgamation and use of digital technologies, in educational learning practices, have now developed into a priority policy across Europe. The digitalization of education is a vital point for Europe’s vision 2024, the European agency of higher education specifically underlines that technology boosts and opens new ways of organizing and structuring digital learning and teaching practices (EHEA, 2021)

To effectively implement such digital learning practices, higher education institutions (HEIs) are especially focusing on specialized learning management software (LMS) to cater to the need and support “Digital Education”. LMS is an easy and faster way of education, in the times of current Pandemic that forced the entire education industry switch to online mode of education”, however adapting to these digital technologies is not always easy.

Rodríguez-Abita. et.al (2021) states many HEIs that implemented the LMS platform for learning, reported a lack of motivation and interest among students and teachers. LMS needs training in order to exploit them to their optimum for greater results.

The topic of the current research is the development of a unified LMS model & how to implement it in Latvian HEIs.

The research aim is to evaluate the efficiency of the current LMS practiced in the Latvian HEIs and suggest possible improvements for students & teachers' engagement in practicing the LMS.

This paper analyzes the efficiency of the current LMS, Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (moodle) for this research work and enables stakeholders to achieve the, “Intended Learning Outcomes” (ILO), from digital technologies in learning and empowering the teachers and the students with a digital platform towards interactive and explorative learning.

Theoretical Framework is formed by technology acceptance model (TAM), user’s acceptance with technology.

This research investigates the HEIs of Latvia and seeks to understand the labyrinth of the teachers & students with the use of LMS platforms in their respective HEI.

According to Dreimane (2019) currently the concept of hybrid learning is leading and well supported by the majority of the learners and HEIs. The courses are designed interactively to support technology and trends in learning.

The use of technology for learning is not new, as time passed it became more easily accessible, advanced, and affordable

As per Vulāne (2019), “The project “Skola2030”, stressed the need to incorporate the digital education & learning principles in the education process enabling learners to refine & develop their skills.

Suryana et.al, (2017), states that, the primary objective of any educational organization behind incorporating digital learning is to increase the learning results, as it is a common belief, that exercising digital learning practices bring in more motivation and individual participation.

According to Simanullang (2021) LMS is widely used to facilitate the purpose of digital learning practices. It has the ability to keep track of the trends to integrate itself with a variety of updates, delivers accurate data and reports which helps educational organizations in a complete form. Several authors (Brandford 2017 & Naufal 2017) have argued that LMSs still have limitations that cannot be overlooked. One major drawback of the LMS is the primary acceptance and endorsement of the stakeholders of educational institutions. The LMS is mostly designed for the educational organizational purpose that means more concerning the role as a management system, although it is referred to as a learning management system, it is more or less utilized for it and not solely designed for it.

In Latvia, most HEIs use MOODLE as an LMS platform, in this research paper the author focuses on the International College of Cosmetology (ICC) which also uses Moodle as their LMS platform.

This article contributes to this research segment by presenting a practical case study of the ICC in Riga, Latvia. ICC is an HEI engaged in providing higher education in cosmetology. The primary digital learning platform used in ICC is Moodle. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the efficiency of Moodle with the stakeholders of ICC, to understand the ILO is achieved & the labyrinth of teachers & students in terms of using Moodle. According to Govender & Grange (2018), TAM is the most extensively exercised as well as approved and validated model, that is being used to determine how the acceptance of new technology will be treated or taken in any given organization. However, the HEIs in order to incorporate the LMS into their institutions need to validate the LMS acceptance with the TAM model, as most of the researchers in the past have validated the technology by the use of theoretical models such as TAM or either by experimental validations. Research involves 2 purposeful samples: in total 228 students of ICC and 2 teachers were approached. All 228 students were active learners of aesthetic cosmetology and therapeutic massages second-year 2nd semester. The students were using Moodle for more than a year for learning & teachers for more than 3 years for teaching. Research question: Is the current Moodle Platform of ICC easy & interactive and what improvements are required? Research methods: The data has been obtained with the aid of primary as well as secondary sources. 1) data collection – learners’ survey (closed and open questions), The questionnaire helped in gathering information about students’ perspectives towards “Digital Learning Practice” and the limitations they face with Moodle. 2) structured interview with two teachers of ICC was conducted. The interview reflected the perspective of teachers towards digital learning & teaching practice and how they adapt towards it. Research process: Students who participated in the survey answered questions regarding their skills with information & technology, the time they spend daily on digital learning tools, the current Moodle's interactivity, and possible improvement feedback for the LMS. The teachers answered interview questions about technology complications, regular switching from one digital learning platform to another, and struggle with content creation, training provided by the management for practicing digital learning tools. Research period: Jan-2020 to Jan-2022.

Moodle is the main digital learning platform for ICC, apart from Moodle, Panopto & Visible Body, Zoom, Team Up types of digital platforms are used at ICC. Students were specifically asked questions regarding Moodle. Since they have been using Moodle to access lecture recordings, examinations, and quizzes during the Pandemic and after, it is more than a year they are engaged with the practice of Moodle for learning and the perfect respondents to measure & validate the acceptance of technology by a user. Students' evaluation of Moodle: 90% of the students stated the current LMS Moodle is not interactive and complicated. The remaining 10% were of the opinion that they do not find it complicated. 75% of students highlighted that current Moodle cannot be accessed in its full form when accessed via mobile devices. Teachers' interview comments: Both the teachers agreed that onboarding for any new technology incorporated by the ICC is provided by experts. However, teachers claimed that due to the fact current Moodle is a bit tricky and also not all functions are open for teachers it is difficult for them to explore & learn on their own. The content creation for the Moodle platform in an interactive & adaptable way is difficult as lack of time & skills to tweak, modify things in the digital learning environment. Difficult to have one content for all digital learning platforms thus difficulty in integration. The students emphasized that they seek interactivity in the current LMS that is Moodle. This highlights the fact that if the LMS is interactive it generates motivation to explore more and thus ease the difficulty by self-exploration. LMS is a great tool to support digital learning, however, it needs to be designed in a simplified and unified way supporting easy integrations to other digital learning platforms.

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