Surveying instructor and learner attitudes toward e-learning

1. Surveying instructor and learner attitudes toward e-learning Presenter: Jenny Tseng Professor: Ming-Puu Chen Date: April 12, 2008 Liaw, S., Huang, H., & Chen, G. (2007). Surveying instructor and learner attitudes toward e-learning. Computers & Education, 49, 1066–1080.

2. Introduction • E-learning refers to the use of Internet technologies to deliver a broad array of solutions that enhance knowledge and performance. • Only a small amount of e-learning literature assesses both instructors’ and learners’ attitudes toward using e-learning as teaching and learning tools. • Understanding users’ attitudes toward e-learning facilitates the creation of appropriate e-learning environments for teaching and learning. • Goals of the research • Surveying instructor attitudes toward e-learning as a teaching assisted tool • Investigating learner perceptions toward e-learning as a learning assisted tool • Exploring from the viewpoint of users including instructors and learners guidelines when deploying e-learning

3. Literature Review (1/2) • Developing effective e-learning • Three considerations • Learner characteristics • Attitudes, motivation, belief, and confidence need to be identified • E-learning signifies autonomous learning environments • Instructional structure • Multimedia instruction enables learners to develop complex cognitive skills • Interaction • learners to learners, or learners to instructors • Cooperative learning

4. Literature Review (2/2) • Attitudes toward e-learning • 3-TUM (three-tier technology use model) • A conceptual approach for investigating user perceptions toward information and Internet technologies form three tiers • The tier of individual experience and system quality • evaluates how individual experience and system quality influence individual affective and cognitive components • The affective and cognitive tier • investigates how affective and cognitive components change individual behavioral intentions • The behavioral intention tier • predicts individual behavioral intention to use technology for a particular purpose

5. Research Hypotheses • Hypotheses of instructor attitudes • The quality of e-learning is positively related to instructors’ perceived enjoyment, usefulness and self-efficacy toward it • The instructors’ perceived enjoyment usefulness and self-efficacy toward e-learning is positively related to their intentions to use it • Hypotheses of learner attitudes • Self-paced learning, instructor-led learning and multimedia instruction are a predictor to learners’ attitudes toward e-learning as an effective learning tool

6. Research Methodology • Participants • Understanding instructor attitudes • A sample of 50 instructors from a university were asked to answer a questionnaire after the 4-h seminar on ‘‘How to Use E-Learning for Teaching Purposes” • A total of 30 responses were collected • Understanding learner attitudes • 168 college students who took either ‘‘Introduction to Computer Science’’ or ‘‘Introduction to Computer Network’’ courses were asked to complete a questionnaire after using the e-learning environment for six weeks • Instruments • The data for this study was gathered by means of a questionnaire included three major components • Demographic information • Computer and Internet experience • Attitudes toward e-learning

7. Results (1/4) • Results of instructors’ attitudes • Many of the variables significantly correlated with each other

8. Results (2/4) • Results of instructors’ attitudes - continued • Perceived system satisfaction could predict perceived self-efficacy and perceived usefulness • Multimedia instruction could predict perceived enjoyment • Perceived usefulness and perceived self-efficacy could predict instructors’ behavioral intention to use e-learning

9. Results (3/4) • Results of learners’ attitudes • Many of the variables significantly correlated with each other

10. Results (4/4) • Results of learners’ attitudes - continued • All three independent variables are predictors

11. Discussion • Perceived system satisfaction is a crucial factor to influence instructors’ perceived self-efficacy and perceived usefulness toward e-learning • Multimedia instruction is a critical predictor for instructors’ perceived enjoyment • When understanding instructors’ behavioral intention to use e-learning environments, perceived usefulness is the greatest contributor, and then perceived self-efficacy • learners’ attitudes toward e-learning as an efficient learning tool can be predicted positively by three factors (e-learning as a self-paced learning environment, e-learning as a form of multimedia instruction, and e-learning as an instructor-led learning environment) • When building an e-learning environment, these three factors should be taken into consideration in order to create an efficient learning environment

12. Conclusion (1/2) • The present study helps us understand instructor intentions and learner attitudes toward e-learning • User perceptions toward e-learning could include affective, cognitive, behavioral, and social components • Attention to these four aspects would serve as an ideal beginning to further our comprehension of the role of attitude factors when using learning technologies • From the results of social perspectives, instructors’ leadership or assistance is a critical factor to affect learners’ attitudes

13. Conclusion (2/2) • Based on the results of investigating instructors’ and learners’ attitudes, four guidelines should be considered when facilitating e-learning • Vivid multimedia learning instruction • Highly autonomous learning environments • Enhancing instructors’ and learners’ asynchronous or synchronous communications • Improving learning effectiveness