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Factors for adopting the Internet for instruction.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

In this study the factors that influenced faculty in the decision to adopt the Internet for instruction at a southeastern United States university were examined. The main purpose was to determine the personal, social, and organizational factors that influenced faculty members in the adoption of the Internet for instructional delivery. Results confirm personal factors are most influential in faculty decision to adopt the Internet for instruction.

Introduction

Distance education is any educational or learning process or system in which the teacher or instructor is separated geographically or in time from his or her students or educational resources. Enrollment in distance education courses has nearly doubled since 1995, with more than half (56%) of the nation's two and four year degree-granting institutions offering distance education courses in the 2000-2001 academic year (NCES, 2003). The Internet was used as the primary mode of instructional delivery with ninety percent of institutions utilizing asynchronous (not simultaneous) computer-based instruction and 43% offering Internet courses using synchronous delivery. Technology such as the Internet offers ways to improve the general efficiency and effectiveness of teaching and communication among constituencies (Doherty & Pope, 1986). With these new technologies, faculty members have available new ways to communicate and support effective and timely classroom discussions with their students, peers, and administrators (Sproull & Kiesler, 1991). Developing a new distance education program, or expanding an existing one, requires change or adoption of an innovation (Schiffer, 2000) including changes in established systems (Rogers, 2003). Unfortunately, change does not come easily (Olcott & Wright, 1995). In order for distance education programs to succeed, faculty must be willing to participate.

A number of researchers have examined the factors that influenced faculty in the adoption of the Internet for teaching (Schifter, 2000; Chang, 2001; Medlin, 2001; Rovai, 2002). These factors can be grouped into three categories: personal, social, and organizational. Personal factors include personal interest to use technology, opportunity to develop new ideas, opportunity to improve teaching, opportunity to diversify program offerings, and greater flexibility for students (Schiffer, 2000). Social...

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