Influences of Online Practice Community on Instructors’ Blended Teaching Behaviors: Analysis Based on an Extended UTAUT Model

Abstract

During the implementation of China’s Vocational Skill Level Certificate, the Vocational Skill Curriculum Development Organization built an online teaching community of practice (COP) by inviting instructors from several schools to participate. Through this community, instructors constructed a blended teaching system together through multiparty collaboration modes like cooperation, communication, sharing, and mutual assistance. As demonstrated by the research team, when teachers participate in a community of practice, the curriculum development model implemented within that community can strengthen the blended teaching intentions and ability of instructors, thus exerting positive effects on their blended teaching behaviors. Based on an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), a theoretical model concerning the influencing factors of online teaching communities of practice on the blended teaching behaviors of instructors was constructed. Through a questionnaire survey and field interviews of 204 instructors, data were analyzed by SPSS and AMOS software and an empirical test of the constructed conceptual model was carried out. The research results demonstrate that performance expectancy influences the blended teaching intentions of instructors only slightly, while effort expectancy and facilitating conditions have significantly positive influences on the blended teaching intentions of instructors. Interactions between the instructors themselves and interactions between instructors and the organization in the online community of practice have significantly positive influences on the blended teaching ability of instructors. The blended teaching intentions and blended teaching ability of instructors both have significantly positive influences on their blended teaching behaviors. In this research conclusion, various methods for online COPs to improve the blended teaching behaviors of instructors were summarized.