Influence of instructors’ adaptability and management of virtual classroom environments on the effectiveness of tertiary students’ virtual knowledge acquisition

Abstract

This paper explored how instructors’ technological adaptability and management of virtual classroom environments affects the quality of students’ virtual learning experiences and the effectiveness of their virtual knowledge acquisition in Ghanaian tertiary institutions. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 700 graduate students. The data was analysed inferentially using the structural equation modelling approach with the analysis of moment structures as the analytical technique. In this technique, path analysis was conducted to test derived hypotheses of the relatedness of the study variables, which served as components in a conceptualised framework developed to guide the study. It was found that instructors’ technological adaptability of virtual classroom environments will directly enhance their management capabilities of virtual teaching–learning systems, which will also directly increase the quality of students’ virtual learning experiences. It was also found that although instructors’ adaptability of virtual classroom environments will not directly increase the quality of students’ virtual learning experiences, it can have an indirect consequence on the quality of student learning. The paper concludes that instructors’ acquisitions of the requisite technological competence to enable them positively to adapt to virtual classroom environments will help enhance their management capabilities of the virtual teaching–learning systems. The study outcome provides academics and education researchers and administrators a good practical perspective of technological adaption of educational teaching–learning tools, systems and mechanisms for enhancing the effective management of virtual classroom systemic activity. It also provides an important pedagogic insight that could enable future study of efficient and effective design of digitised virtual classrooms to enhance virtual teaching–learning practice.