A Comparative Study of the Factors Influencing the Adoption of E learning by Lecturers at Universities in Bulawayo Zimbabwe
E learning is a fairly new concept in education which uses the internet technology to deliver the digital content and to provide a learner oriented environment for the teachers and students. Many educational institutions across the globe are using e learning for their lesson delivery. This study focused on determining the factors that influence the adoption of e learning by lecturers at universities in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Due to financial constraints, 65 respondents who were selected through convenience sampling technique proportionally drawn from the three universities in Bulawayo were included in this research. The researchers used a self constructed questionnaire to collect data. To validate the instruments in terms of content, the researchers used experts and then a pilot study was administered at Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) which was not to be included in this study. The results from pilot study were computed using Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient and were found at 0.940 which ascertains consistency and stability of responses from respondents. For the actual study,following the coding and tabulation of data, statistical analyses were made using SPSS. This research found that lecturers at the universities in Bulawayo have not adopted the use of elearning in their lesson delivery. They generally believed that they were computer literate as well as their students but using e learning may not be beneficial to their students. Furthermore, they lacked motivation and institutional support; they perceived it difficult to use e learning in their subjects and they had a negative attitude towards it. Among the factors that were studied: lecturer's attitude towards e learning; lecturer's competence and nature of the subject have great influence on the adoption of e learning by lecturers at the universities in Bulawayo. There were no statistically significant differences among perceptions of the respondents on the factors that influence the adoption of e learning by lecturers in each university. Key Terms: E learning; E learning adoption; information technology; university lecturers I. Background of the Study The traditional educational delivery system in universities for a relatively long period of time has been a classroom with a professor giving lectures to students who in response, listen and take notes. Progress in information technology has enabled new educational delivery methods such as e learning. Richard and Haya (2009) stated that e learning is a new concept in education which uses the internet technology to deliver the digital content and to provide a learner oriented environment for the teachers and students. As a result, many universities have widely embraced this new e learning world. The internet has become one of the most important means to provide learning resources for students, to share and obtain information (Richard Haya, 2009) Many educational institutions across the globe are using e learning for their lesson delivery. However, it is not the case with the universities in Bulawayo. Although this technology is being accepted in educational institutions, it has not yet been institutionalised by the majority of universities. Schou and Shoemaker (2007) expressed their concern that the behaviour of human beings is difficult to predict and control' yet the adoption of new systems including e learning is dependent on their cooperation. Many authors like Whitten, Bentley and Dittman (2004) Stair and Reynolds (2006) Laudon and Laudon (2007) to name just a few, seemed to be constantly pointing to the success of system implementation or adoption as dependant on employee cooperation and management support. Adoption of e learning by universities is crucial as they are supposed to be on the cutting edge and give their graduates an up to date learning experience. As stated by Babic (2012) introducing e learning into higher education institution is beneficial as it brings about changes at organizational, economical and technical levels. There are three universities operating from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe which are Solusi University, Lupane State University and National University of Science and Technology (NUST) A number of researches have been conducted in the area of e learning. However, no research has been conducted that seeks to compare factors that influence the adoption of e learning by lecturers at universities, let alone in Bulawayo. This study sought to find out the factors that influence the adoption of e learning by lecturers at the universities in Bulawayo. Thus, this A Comparative Study of the Factors Influencing the Adoption of E learning by Lecturers at. DOI: 10.9790/7388 0604036473 www.iosrjournals.org 65 Page gave the researchers a ground breaking experience as the research was original and not a mere reproduction of other people's ideas. II. Literature Review The review of related literature centered mainly on e learning adoption, lecturer competence, lecturer's attitude towards e learning, lecturer's perception of students, institutional factors, nature of the subject, and lecturer's motivation. This section identified the research by way of reviewing the already documented literature in this area of research. It revealed contributions made by earlier scholars and focused on the themes of the study. Important areas were handled as subtopics in this section. Under this section, different areas were looked at to help in understanding ideas and theories applicable to this study. 2.1 E learning Adoption According to Chokri (n.d. E learning is referred to as the use of information and communication technologies to facilitate the access to online learning/teaching resources and to provide students with collaborative environments and tools| Despite the wide use of information and communication technology in university teaching, research on e learning adoption suggests that it has not reached its full potential (Zemsky& Massy, 2004) As stated by Elgort (2005) Adoption of e learning in the university context is influenced by a number of factors, including organisational, socio cultural, intraand interpersonal factors, to mention a few. To understand the factors which influence lecturers' adoption of e learning, there are various theories and models which include the technology acceptance model. The technology acceptance model has its foundations in the theory of social psychology which was developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) as Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) which points out the key factors which influence the behavioural intent: attitude toward behaviour and subjective norm; if users have the intention of accepting technology, they will do so, but under the strong influence of the environment. Perceived adequacy of technical support to both lecturers and students alike on the use of e learning and other information technologies has an important impact on the adoption of e learning in education (Timothy, 2009) Thus, to facilitate for the adoption of e learning, there is need to ensure the information systems used by the university are always readily accessible and whenever there are challenges, the lecturers and the students have ready access to help. The theory of the diffusion of innovations was developed in the United States by Rogers in 1962 (Wikipedia, n.d. Various descriptive synonyms for Rogers' original category names are also in use, namely technology enthusiasts' representing the innovators, visionaries' in place of early adopters, pragmatists' interchangeable with early majority, conservatives' for late majority and sceptics' representing the laggards (Wikipedia, n.d. The figure below shows Rogers' innovation adoption lifecycle as it also applies in the adoption of e learning. Figure 1: Innovation Adoption Lifecycle according to Rogers (1962) Adapted from Wikipedia Among the influencing factors are lecturer's attitude toward technology, competencies in the use of technology and motivation to learn and use new technology. Given the various stages of e learning adoption, it is of paramount importance to ensure that universities make it increasingly easy for lecturers to adopt e learning if it is to be used at all. There is need to offer technical support, encouragement and training for lecturers especially those who are not in the first two groups, the innovators and the early adopters so they can gain confidence and use e learning. Zemsky and Massy (2004) identified four different cycles of e learning adoption; each of them requires different levels of adjustment in the teaching methods. They describe the first one as enhancement to the traditional course and it has minimal changes in the teaching and learning process. In the second cycle, there is introduction of new course management systems. This is followed by the use of imported course objects like multimedia applications and interactive simulations. Finally, the most challenging e learning adoption cycle is characterised by new course configurations, where faculty and their institutions re engineer teaching and A Comparative Study of the Factors Influencing the Adoption of E learning by Lecturers at. DOI: 10.9790/7388 0604036473 www.iosrjournals.org 66 Page learning activities to take full and optimal advantage of the new technology. Thus, it requires active teacher and student commitment, learning of new technology and assumption of new roles. According to Zemsky and Massy (2004) cycles three and four remain in the innovators' stage although both the first and second e learning adoption cycles are in the early majority stage. However, even when using e learning technologies most have not changed their way of teaching, thus failing to realise the full potential of e learning. 2.2 Lecturer Competence For anyone to be able to use e learning it is critical that they should be computer literate. As stated by Liu (2005) the lack of computer knowledge is closely related to computer anxiety an