Investigating the uptake of educational systems by academics using the technology to performance chain model
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2017-0029 |
| Pages | 629-648 |
| Published date | 20 November 2017 |
| Date | 20 November 2017 |
| Author | Nouzha Harrati,Imed Bouchrika,Zohra Mahfouf |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Metadata,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Investigating the uptake of
educational systems by academics
using the technology to
performance chain model
Nouzha Harrati
Department of Computer Science, University of Bejaia, Bejaia, Algeria and
School of Computer Science, University of Souk Ahras, Souk Ahras, Algeria
Imed Bouchrika
Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Souk Ahras,
Souk Ahras, Algeria, and
Zohra Mahfouf
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science,
Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Souk Ahras,
Souk Ahras, Algeria
Abstract
Purpose –The purposeof this paper is to explorethe relationshipbetween the perceivedperformance, software
usability, andattitude of academics to use online technology to perform their tasksin the academic context.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper assesses the acceptance and utilization of university lecturers
for an online educational system using the technology-to-performance chain model. The evaluation process is
conducted via an online survey which is administered to 180 university staff meanwhile objective
measurements describing the actual utilization are considered during the analysis. Partial least squares path
modeling is used in this study in tandem with other statistical methods to test the significance and influence
of different constructs and factors related to the user.
Findings –The usability of information systems plays a crucial role compared to the attitude and social
norms for lecturers to actually utilize technological products. Meanwhile, the TTF is observed to have more
influence than the actual utilization for the perceived impact on performance. For the individual’s
characteristics, the study indicates that the age is an influential factor on the utilization and performance in
contrast to the gender which has a marginal impact.
Originality/value –The study describes a model to assess the acceptance of technology by academics
based on combining self-reported data and objective quantitative measures which describe the actual
utilization of the user. Further, the usability estimated using the well-known System Usability Scale is
integrated within the developed model to reflect the ease of use for technology. Further, covariate analysis is
conducted to explore how different types of users interact and react to educational systems for different
factors including age, gender, academic qualifications and experience.
Keywords Technology acceptance, Usability, eLearning, Human behaviour, TPC, User performance
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Due to the unprecedented use of computers and smart devices combined with the
availability of internet connectivity in most places, information systems are becoming
ubiquitous and integral part of our daily life in such a contemporary era. The use of online
technology at academic institutions has greatly reshaped and transformed the way we
teach, work and conduct research. Software systems are designed to assist students and Library Hi Tech
Vol. 35 No. 4, 2017
pp. 629-648
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-01-2017-0029
Received 31 January 2017
Revised 29 May 2017
20 July 2017
Accepted 30 July 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
The authors would like to thank all the university lecturers who were willing to participate in the
e-learning usability project.
629
Uptake of
educational
systems by
academics
academic staff in performing their tasks more efficiently and effectively. Considerable
amounts of funding are being spent to modernize and deploy information systems in order
to improve individual and institutional performance. This is eased with the emergence of a
new generation of undergraduate students being considered as the digital natives who have
grown up for their whole lives surrounded by the use of computers, smart phones and online
technologies ( Joo and Choi, 2015). Although there are advocates within the university
community who still prefer traditional teaching methods which include face-to-face
communication, considerable efforts are being devoted to promoting the use of new
technology and e-learning for course delivery, communication and research. Numerous
recent studies (McGill et al., 2014) have argued that educational innovations can wither and
be subverted if technological initiatives are not embraced and maintained by university
lecturers. In fact, academics play a pivotal role for the uptake and success of digital
infrastructure via enriching the e-learning platforms with pedagogical materials to
supplement their teaching activities in addition to publishing their e-textbooks and research
contributions on the library repositories.
As more and more academic institutions have opted to use online technology for their
course delivery and pedagogical activities, there has been an increasing interest in
understanding the factors related to the acceptance and adoption of online information
systems by higher education staff in order to devise strategies and to enhance and improve
the teaching and research quality. Further, research on e-learning systems in addition to the
linkage between information systems and staff performance have attracted unprecedented
interest in order to better apprehend how effective and usable e-learning systems are in
terms of principles related to human computer interaction (Navimipour and Zareie, 2015;
Bringula, 2013; Escobar-Rodriguez and Monge-Lozano, 2012) and human behavior
(Roca and Gagné, 2008; Liaw et al., 2007). Numerous research studies concern the analytical
quantification of the various factors that determine and shape software usability
(Albert and Tullis, 2013; Hornbæk, 2006) and analyze the human behavior. Most examined
covariate factors are related to the user, such as age, academic level, social status, gender or
specific impairments (Pariente-Martinez et al., 2016; Mentes and Turan, 2012). In spite of the
fact that there are numerous research studies on child-computer interaction, performance
rates of older people and accessibility for users with special needs, most web applications
are designed and developed for younger people whilst ignoring other groups of users with
specific requirements. Without doubt, studying these factors along with the involved
constraints of these groups is crucial in order to enhance the software usability and user
acceptance by adapting the graphical interface to suit different user requirements.
Positive user experience emerges as an important pillar for the adoption of educational
learning systems. This is mainly because the availability of technological infrastructures and
systems is not adequate to enforce the uptake of new educational approaches from the academic
community (Persico et al., 2014; Phillips et al., 2012; Laurillard et al., 2009). Considerable criticism
regarding the quality of existing e-learning systems are being cited by a number of studies
(Chua and Dyson, 2004) in addition to further issues including low performance and poor
usability. The usability nature of educational software systems is defined as the extent to which
a product can be easily used by specified users to achieve certain goals with effectiveness,
efficiency and satisfaction (Mayhew, 1999), and it is a key characteristic to achieve the
acceptance and adoption for academic staff regardless of their background, experience or
orientation. The satisfaction part is related to how the users believe or feel positively that the
system meets their requirements (Lee et al., 1995; Capece and Campisi, 2013; Islam, 2014;
Yeh and Lin, 2015). Meanwhile, other researchers have defined satisfaction as the gap between
the expected gain and the actual gain when using the system (Tsai et al., 2007). There is an
emerging body of literature on relating the usability aspect of information systems as important
factor to influence the human behavior to accept new technological products (Harrati et al., 2016).
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LHT
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