Case study design is often characterized as a poorly applied and understood approach to conduct research into information systems. This literature review examined 28 empirical studies of Learning Management Systems (LMS) that were self-declared as case studies. This paper’s main aim was to establish whether these studies actually applied case study techniques or simply utilized the term “case study” as a label of convenience. Alarmingly, more than one-third of the examined articles contained little or no justification for adopting a case study design and did not meet the established criteria for identification as a case study as outlined in this review. The lack of an appropriate discussion on the characteristics and applicability of the case study approach to empirical discovery brings into question the robustness of a study’s stated methodology. It is not sufficient to assume that the label “case study” by itself will portray a universal understanding of the research design of an empirical LMS study. This paper proposes that a robust description of what constitutes a case study in a LMS context will assist in ensuring that future studies on LMS (or other information systems) research that intend to adopt a case study approach, adequately present appropriate justifications for adopting this methodology. It is hoped that our definition and description of LMS case study methodology will serve to inspire further reflection on the characteristics of this robust research approach that might lead to a set of guidelines for applying this methodology to information systems research.

案例研究设计通常被认为是一种对信息系统进行研究的方法，缺乏很好的应用和理解。这篇文献综述研究了28项自称为案例研究的学习管理系统（LMS）的实证研究。本文的主要目的是确定这些研究是实际应用案例研究技术还是简单地使用“案例研究”一词作为方便的标签。令人震惊的是，超过三分之一的被检查文章几乎没有或没有采用案例研究设计的理由，并且不符合本综述中概述的确定为案例研究的既定标准。缺乏对案例研究方法用于经验发现的特征和适用性的适当讨论，这使研究陈述的方法的健壮性受到质疑。仅凭标签“案例研究”本身就可以描绘出对LMS经验研究的研究设计的普遍理解是不够的。本文建议，对LMS案例研究的构成进行有力的描述，将有助于确保将来打算采用案例研究方法的LMS（或其他信息系统）研究的研究充分提出采用这种方法的适当理由。 。希望我们对LMS案例研究方法的定义和描述将有助于激发人们对这种强大的研究方法的特征的进一步思考，这可能会导致将这种方法应用于信息系统研究的一系列指导方针。