Keeping things manageable for staff and students
Very interesting how technology acceptance model (TAM) leads into unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) work within each other
The presence of computer and information technologies in today's organizations has expanded dramatically (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003). This was from 2003, think of the technology integration that has occurred since then.
- Effort Expectancy - What is the ease of use for the users.
- Social Influence - Holds a key factor if technology advancement will be successful in an organization (Video, 2019). This is similar to actors and models being spokespeople for new products.
- Facilitating Conditions - Facilitating conditions are defined as the degree to which an individual believes that an organizational and technical infrastructure exists to support use of the system (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003).
- These are other key factors in considering UTAUT within your education structure or work organization.
- Who are your stakeholders, use them to evaluate the technology being reviewed. As a team, look into all needs and weigh the pros and cons. Make a collective positive decision to what will meet the needs of your education program or work organization.
- Technology can be user friendly from an administration side but maybe not from a student side or vice versa. It is important to look at the usage from all sides.
- Will it be useful to their daily routine and not create more work for everyone. Does the integrated technology talk to all other platforms used for ease of administration. Is it compatible for all devices, Apple, Chromebooks, PC, Phones, and others?
- How do you see implementation being received? Try to think ahead and bridge some of the concerns students and teachers are going to need to work through. Identify the challenges and benefits and be as proactive as possible.
Working with a few different online blended learning platforms there are many pros and cons to each of them. Some focused towards the students and others towards the trainer. Back in 2011 I was part of the roll out for the first blended learning lifeguard program for the YMCA. It was bright and shiny and new. The YMCA spent a lot of time structuring and restructuring to make the roll out of this program a positive experience. Really it was well organized and implemented rather seamlessly. From a trainers point of view it was well organized. It made our jobs easier and offered a great lifeguard training experience. As a participant it offered less face-to-face class time and the ability to start the course independently. Shortening class times made a class meeting for 32 hours reduced down to 20 hours, so for managers it was less time out of the office. They worked hard to meet the performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions were implemented in an organized fashion.
One thing with blended learning I have noticed to be an area of concern is at times some training will only pull up on certain devices and/or specific browsers. In these situations effort expectancy isn’t always the best. It seems as trainers and students we have just learned this is an area we may have to work through. Preparing students for the possibility they will need to be on a laptop or PC to complete their training is helpful for them to know in advance. This will help students plan for the appropriate timing they will need to participate in course work.
References
Technology Acceptance Model overview and use for evaluation. (2019). [Video]. Retrieved 5 October 2022, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_FNlzeYhao.
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425-478. https://k-state.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01KSU_INST/1260r8r/cdi_gale_infotracacademiconefile_A108912880
Hello! I agree that engaging with stakeholders is an important responsibility. Communicating with stakeholders about goals further increases the likelihood of congruency between the interests, goals, and needs of the organization (Constantino and Merchant, 1996). As a result of the communication, technical and procedural details will identify all who will be affected and have clear objectives to offer multiple opportunities for support to successful technology integration. Therefore, early work regarding stakeholder engagement is imperative in setting the tone of creating a foundation that is equipped for change. I also agree that the compatibility of browsers is a great area of concern! There have been numerous times when I have had to switch back and forth between different browsers to recognize which browser worked best with a system/website. Letting students know ahead of time which browsers are compatible is definitely helpful!
ReplyDeleteConstantino, C. A., Merchant, C. S. (1996). Designing Conflict Management Systems: A Guide to Creating Productive and Healthy Organizations. Jossey-Bass Publishers, 168-186.
These are great points. I can completely relate to the convenience of online learning. My program once upon a time had in-person tutor training which was a time commitment of 4 weekends in a row for 4 hours each weekend. Training has moved to online and asynchronous and has much less demand on our staff of 2 people, and is convenient for both admin and the tutors in training. That said, I do feel that we miss some things from in-person training. But we have not yet gone back to in-person training. The online training works well and my assistant and I aim to be very accessible and will do pretty much anything to support our tutors with learning materials and additional things they may need.
ReplyDeleteI have also encountered where different technologies can only perform so much with different programs. I like how you said, "Preparing students for the possibility they will need to be on a laptop or PC to complete their training is helpful for them to know in advance. This will help students plan for the appropriate timing they will need to participate in course work." I agree that students need to be aware. And on our side of it, perhaps we can offer different ways to accept work as well? I have noticed this with all these online courses. Instructors definitely want us to succeed and offer various ways in which we can submit papers and such. In addition, all of them offered links to tutorials on how to use our resources and Canvas to be successful in the class. So I hope to model this in some way when working with remote learners. Being clear, communicate frequently, and keeping things manageable is a great goal for administrating!
Hello! I love that you were able to share this personal experience for the rollout of lifeguard training and tie it into the learning in this course. A huge takeaway for me in this Blog was the fact that tremendous efficiencies were gained, taking the class time meeting from 32 to 20 hours.
ReplyDeleteI think this says a lot for what technology can do if implemented correctly under the UTAUT Model. I want to try and sum this scenario up unter UTAUT (Venkatesh, et al., 2003):
When the instructor set the stage with SOCIAL INFLUENCE for the training, they were also able to set the PERFORMANCE and EFFORT EXPECTANCY for students that learning outside of class is important to facilitating the certification process and as a result, everyone saved time because of the FACILITATING CONDITIONS allowing for this.
While I realize that time saved throughout implementing the UTAUT is not the only benefit, it is absolutely the one resonating with me right now as I think about everything instructors have on their plate, as well as students.
Reference:
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425-478. https://k-state.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01KSU_INST/1260r8r/cdi_gale_infotracacademiconefile_A108912880