Transformation of Academic Ecology through Information Communication Technology Adoption

Abstract

The role of technology in evolving and uplifting the lifestyle of populations worldwide has been enormous since the advent of 21st Century. Education when combined with technology, escalates the whole process of growth and development by making the user more and more independent in managing complex tasks in real time with less effort. This is an integrated process involving many factors to interplay. Acceptance of technology in the field of education still remains a challenge. There exist discrepancies in access and acceptance of technology among users in the academic realm, especially in the developing countries. This study attempts to gauge such discrepancies and the factors that lead to them by digging into the attitudes that urge people to accept or reject the Learning Management System (LMS) - a widely used technological intervention in the teaching learning process. The study was conducted in an engineering institute in India and data was collected from both the students and the teachers. The factors identified by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) Model were used to design tools for data collection. Interviews were also conducted to substantiate the quantitative findings. The results indicated that acceptance of LMS was less in women as compared to their male counterparts both among the teachers and the students. The dependency on technology is influenced by factors such as the extent to which the user considers it easy to operate and, social influence from colleagues and seniors. Thus, it becomes clear that Effort Expectancy and Social Influence play an important role in the acceptance or rejection of available technology aides in education among women.