Ch2 Literature Review of faculty attitudes towered e-learning - Dissertation Example

Faculty attitudes are often perceived to be amongst the main sources that lead towards change efforts in academic programs. There are some studies that reveal that faculty development programs make faculty members to become prone to adopt only such changes that they feel are crucial or desired (Costa, McPhail, Smith, and Brisk, 2005, p. 105). Given that e-learning has been made possible because of new technology, its efficient use is dependent upon positive attitude being adopted by faculty members.

There will be more meaningful incentive for using e-learning if faculty attitudes become positive (Liaw Huang, & Chen, 2007). There may be initial reluctance on the part of faculty members to adopt new teaching styles in view of the massive effort that has to be made in adapting to them. It is in this context that there is increasing demand to alter the negative attitudes towards using e-learning amongst faculty members. Only in this way can e-learning teaching requirements be fulfilled. The threats associated with this new style of teaching and technology does not mean that the dangers and risks associated with this system should be ignored. . According to Magnussen (2008), it has become very important to adopt e-learning as a meaningful option for teaching because of the change towards philosophical concepts through which educators are viewed.

They are not considered as distributors of educational content but as facilitators of learning. Bai and Ertmer (2004) have held that faculty attitude towards technology can be made better by integrating the available technology with course work provided to faculty members. A significant aspect in this regard is that faculty members can teach in the same way as they have been educated. It is very true that computer proficiency cannot be transferred to learners until faculty members adopt positive attitude towards e-learning (Yildirim, 2000, p. 481). Liaw (2006) has raised questions if learning institutions will be able to meet the requirements of a diverse student population and transforming societies.

Mahdizadeh, Biemans, and Mulder (2007) researched on Perceived self-efficacy of faculty attitudes toward e-learning and found that the use of e-learning by instructors is explained largely in terms of their perceptions about the value they get from e-learning systems. The concept of computer self efficacy is derived from Bandura’s (1986) self-efficacy construct that relates to a person’s ability to use computers. Perceived enjoyment is defined as ‘‘the extent to which the activity of using a specific system is perceived to be enjoyable in it’s own right, aside from any performance consequences resulting from system use” (Venkatesh, 2000, p.343) Perceived enjoyment is the inherent motivation that has a strong