Institutions of higher education have invested heavily in learning management systems (LMS) for creating course websites. Yet, how to assess LMS effectiveness is not fully agreed upon. Based on institutional theory, this article considers student satisfaction as indicative of LMS success and proposes a lens of critical success factors (CSF) as a different new approach for exploring LMS effectiveness. Results obtained in a survey of 8425 students and in semi-structured interviews with 40 students point to five critical success factors for increasing student satisfaction with LMS: Content Completeness, Content Currency, Easy to Navigate, Easy to Access and Course Staff Responsiveness. The main contribution of the CSF lens is in guiding institutions of higher education toward informed decision making regarding LMS technology. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)