Abstract
Based on earlier studies using the 1999 and 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) data, a causal model explaining faculty technology use was constructed. Path analysis was used to test the causal effects of age, gender, highest degree, discipline (health science or not), recent research productivity, and teaching load on faculty use of websites in teaching. Two models, one for faculty from Research I institutions and the other for faculty from Community Colleges, were tested and both models fit the data with satisfying indices. Results confirmed that age, highest degree, and teaching loads influenced technology use directly, but indicated the lack of relationship between research productivity and technology use in teaching. An additional connection is suggested from discipline to teaching load. One important difference between the two models is that the impact of gender and teaching load on research productivity is significant for faculty at Research institutions, but not for faculty at community colleges. The models confirm the consistent and relatively strong relationship of teaching load to faculty technology use.
Highlights
Why is there such interest in whether and to what extent faculty use technology in higher education? Certainly, the interest may be because students come to college with an interest in the latest technologies [3] or that employers insist that students graduate with appropriate technical skills [4]
Higher education institutions are interested in seeing faculty use of technology increase as evidenced by a focus on faculty development, growth of distance education, and e-learning among the issues monitored in the annual survey of the top ten issues of Chief Information Officers compiled by Educause
An indirect effect was added from health science disciplines to faculty use of technology through teaching load as a result of analysis and further consideration of how teaching in the health science disciplines at research institutions may depend on technology to a lesser extent than other disciplines
Summary
Why is there such interest in whether and to what extent faculty use technology in higher education? Certainly, the interest may be because students come to college with an interest in the latest technologies [3] or that employers insist that students graduate with appropriate technical skills [4]. Why is there such interest in whether and to what extent faculty use technology in higher education? It is possible that technology has become, in the minds of some state and higher education leaders, a “silver bullet” that can solve higher education’s problems of low productivity or poor performance [5, 6]. Higher education institutions are interested in seeing faculty use of technology increase as evidenced by a focus on faculty development, growth of distance education, and e-learning among the issues monitored in the annual survey of the top ten issues of Chief Information Officers compiled by Educause. It investigates how technology comes to be used by faculty, but not whether it achieves all that has been ascribed to it.
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