Abstract Middle School Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs about Administrative Support and Online Teaching During the COVID-19

During the spring of 2020, a South Georgia school implemented distance learning due to COVID-19, with little administrative support for the teachers for online instruction. This quick transition may have impacted teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about teaching online. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore middle school teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about online instruction and the impact administrative support may have had on these beliefs, while teaching remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was rooted in Bandura\u27s self-efficacy theory and Venkatesh\u27s Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. The research questions investigated how administrative support and experience with technology may have impacted teachers\u27 personal self-efficacy beliefs in teaching remotely during the pandemic. Interviews of eleven middle school teachers, who worked in a rural Georgia school, were transcribed and analyzed. Analysis revealed significant themes regarding teacher relationship with technology, lack of student involvement, student accessibility to technology, administrative communication, administrative expectations, and perceptions of administrative efficacy as significant factors impacting the teaching self-efficacy of respondents. A white paper report was developed to present recommendations for addressing the issues. Implications for positive social change include a better understanding of how administrators and district responses to crises impact teacher self-efficacy and the development of an emergency closure plan, including guidelines on supporting teachers as they continue classes remotely

The Effect of Technostress on the Motivation to Teach Online in Higher Education Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of Business Faculty

This study investigated the relationships among technostress creators (techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, techno-invasion, techno-overload, and techno-uncertainty) on the motivation to teach online using the Motivation to Teach Online – Faculty Version scale. Data were collected from faculty members of the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS), a member of the AACSB Business Education Alliance, and the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences (ASBBS), an interdisciplinary professional organization comprised of faculty teaching in accounting, finance, management, marketing, organizational behavior, and computer information systems early 2020 (N = 307). The findings indicated that techno-stressed faculty are less motivated to teach online. Techno-insecurity and techno-overload subconstructs were statistically significant pre-pandemic. Techno-insecurity was statistically significant during the pandemic. Gender and years of teaching online were not observed among faculty to modify online teaching motivations. Results are presented to supply institutions of higher learning with evidence to support faculty with online learning undertakings while leveraging opportunities to manage enrollment

University students’ levels of anxiety, readiness, and acceptance for e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

This article determined the levels of readiness and acceptance for e-learning of university students during the COVID-19. Participants were 2,035 university students who completed a restricted online survey. Data show that the students are generally ready for e-learning as they exhibit readiness in three of five areas of e-learning readiness (computer self-efficacy, self-directed learning, and learning motivations). However, the students have low mean score ratings for learner control and online communication self-efficacy. As regards their acceptance for e-learning, the data show that the students do not accept all constructs of acceptability such as performance expectancy, attitude, image, social influence, and compatibility. Moreover, results show that the level of online readiness of the students has a strong association with their level of engagement. Hence, the students' motivations for learning, computer/internet self-efficacy, learner control, self-directed learning, and online communication self-efficacy matter for the enhancement of their level of engagement. Further, the researchers learned that anxiety toward COVID-19 does not influence students' levels of e-learning readiness and acceptance; while, their level of readiness is strongly associated with their level of acceptanc

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Digital Competence of Educators

The Covid-19 pandemic is having an undeniable impact on all the statements of society. Regarding teaching and learning activities, most educational institutions suspended in-person instruction and moved to remote learning during the lockdown of March and April 2020. Although nowadays many countries have progressively re-opened their educational systems, blended learning is a common practice aimed to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 disease. This disruption has supposed an unprecedented acceleration to the digitalization of teaching and learning. Teaching professionals have been forced to develop their digital competence in a short amount of time, getting mastery in the management of information, the creation of audiovisual contents, and the use of technology to keep their students connected. This Special Issue presents contributions regarding the adoption of distance learning strategies, experiences, or lessons learned in this domain

Examing the role of platformbased learning in tertiary education system in Ghana. Lessions from COVID-19

Aim: This study examines the role of platform-based teaching and learning in the Ghana tertiary educational system. This study focuses on the lessons from COVID-19 pandemic and explores measures to make platform-based learning sustainable. Theory: This study is grounded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to explain the role and sustainability of the platform learning model. These are widely used theory to explore the feasibilities of adopting some new technologies hence it is applicable to probe the role of the platform-based teaching and learning model concerning performance and sustaining the tertiary education system. The Theory focuses on the expectancy (opportunities) ease of use (challenges), reliability (sustainability) of adopting platform-based learning tertiary education system in Ghana. Method: The study used a qualitative approach based on in-depth structured and semi-structured interviews to thematically analyze the data. For the lecturers and administrators, this study used a purposive sampling technique to select 10 participants each, whereas a stratified random sampling technique was used to select 25 students from five tertiary institutions in Ghana. The researcher followed Braun and Clarke (2006) thematic analysis process by transcription, coding, analysis, overall, and written report to analysis the data. Results: Taking key lessons from COVID-19, the study revealed that emergency adoption of platform-based learning among tertiary institutions provided both challenges and opportunities such as unpreparedness, internet issues, cost of data, flexibility, and new experiences. Secondly, a majority of the respondents witnessed an increase in academic (students) and teaching (lecturers) performance. The students and lecturers predominantly use laptops, and smartphones to access the platform for teaching and learning. Moreover, the study found that to sustain the platform-based learning approach, much attention is needed to the application features to enhance efficiency in examination or assessment, tutorials or meetings, communication and feedback, flexibility of the system applications and compatibility with other devices

Unravelling Technology Acceptance: Lessons Learnt from Teacher's Experience During COVID-19 for Post-Pandemic Systemic Education

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique environment to understand education technology acceptance and adoption. The pandemic acted as a catalyst, encouraging higher education (HE) institutions to rapidly transition from traditional learning environments to technology-driven learning environments. While the motivation for this transition at an institutional level was driven by the need for operational continuation and survival, this rapid transition transferred an increased responsibility to the teacher. Extant research in the context of education technology acceptance and adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic gives substantial emphasis to the learner’s experience since the learner is often seen as being on the receiving end of this transformation. However, in this narrative, the teacher is often overlooked. Through a systematic literature review of technology acceptance and adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, we examine themes surrounding the teacher’s experience to address the research questions. When the teacher or instructor is the subject of the study, how have learning technologies influenced their role? and What factors encourage or influence teachers’ acceptance of learning technologies? Key findings from this study reveal that the role of the teacher in this technology-driven learning environment shifts from instructor to facilitator, positioning them as an extension of technology. As a result, the teacher determines how the educational technology is perceived by the learner as useful or easy to use. The findings of this study recognise considerations for HE institutions in this age of digital transformation while also presenting new avenues for research in the domain of technology acceptance and adoption

Aceptación y uso de plataformas virtuales basada en la nube por estudiantes de educación superior de escuelas profesionales: aplicación del modelo UTAUT con enfoque PLS-SEM

Cloud-based virtual platforms emerged as a new way of tracking lectures as mobile, reliable, and productive. Especially due to the COVID-19 breakdown, they became popular because checking the students’ effort, performance, social interaction among each other, and the condition of vocational schools was easy to track during and after the online classes. The research aims to analyze the behavioral intention to adopt cloud-based virtual platforms such as Blackboard, Microsoft, Zoom, Edmodo, Sakai and Moodle during COVID-19. 14 questions were asked to 313 students from higher education vocational schools in the district of Izmir, Turkey via Google Forms. PLS-SEM analyses were made by SmartPLS 4.0 software and by proposing the Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) theory. The results showed that the variance of effort expectancy, behavioral intention, and facilitating conditions explained 76.00% of the proposed model. The research contributes to understanding the students’ behavior toward the acceptance of cloud-based virtual platforms in case of new variants or other epidemic diseases emerged in the future.Las plataformas de aprendizaje basadas en la nube surgieron como una nueva forma portable, confiable y productiva de hacer un seguimiento a clases y conferencias. Particularmente debido al impacto del COVID-19, se convirtieron en herramientas populares debido a su facilidad para monitorear el esfuerzo de los estudiantes, su rendimiento, así como su interacción social durante y después de las clases. La investigación tiene como objetivo analizar la intención de comportamiento de adoptar plataformas virtuales basadas en la nube como Blackboard, Microsoft, Zoom, Edmodo, Sakai y Moodle durante COVID-19. Se hicieron 14 preguntas a 313 estudiantes de escuelas vocacionales de educación superior en el distrito de Izmir, Turquía a través de Google Forms. Análisis PLS-SEM se realizaron mediante el software SmartPLS 4.0 proponiendo la la teoría unificada de aceptación y uso de tecnología (UTAUT). Los resultados mostraron que la varianza de la expectativa de esfuerzo, la intención de comportamiento, y las condiciones facilitadoras explicaron el 75,40% del modelo propuesto. La investigación permite comprender el comportamiento de los estudiantes hacia la aceptación de plataformas de aprendizaje basadas en la nube en caso de que surjan nuevas variantes u otras enfermedades epidémicas en el futuro

Teacher Perceptions of Integrating Technology Tools

AbstractTechnology underutilization in educational settings is a problem that costs school districts time and money. This problem grounded the purpose of this study to explore teachers\u27 perceptions of factors that influenced technology integration in a rural school district so that research-derived recommendations could be provided to improve future technology initiatives. The conceptual framework of this study was the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. Four research questions guided the exploration of K-12 teachers\u27 perceptions about technology utilization based on the framework\u27s tenets of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, and facilitating conditions that influence teachers\u27 technology utilization. The purposeful sample comprised 12 participants who were teachers employed by a single school district during a failed technology initiative. Following a basic qualitative descriptive design, an open-ended interview protocol was employed to collect data for subsequent thematic analysis that was organized by each of the 4 research questions. The findings revealed 4 corresponding themes that influenced teacher decisions to utilize technology: (a) improving professional performance through technology use, (b) pedagogical gains are worth the effort, (c) the importance of technology mentors and coaches, and (d) technology coaching and administrative support for technology integration. The COVID-19 pandemic influenced the decision to create a new professional development program rather than a policy statement to proactively assist technology integration based on these research findings. Combining the unprecedented need to deliver education remotely with the uncertainty of reconvening face-to-face classes due to the pandemic, positive social change will result from more teachers integrating technology with fidelity

Understanding Faculty Perspectives on Using a Learning Management System at a Caribbean University in Guyana

In this basic qualitative study, faculty hesitation toward using Moodle learning management system (LMS) for instructional delivery was investigated. The research question focused on how faculty perspectives on their hesitation toward using the institution’s LMS in the Faculty of Social Sciences at a Caribbean university in Guyana reflect the tenets of Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory (DIT). Rogers’ DIT formed the conceptual framework for this study. Eleven lecturers in the faculty of Social Sciences who actively use the institution’s learning management system (LMS) for instructional delivery were purposefully selected for semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed using Saldana’s coding manual for coding and thematic analysis. Six themes emerged to answer the research question: (a) Moodle features used, (b) benefits of using Moodle, (c) Moodle use comfort levels, (d) social influencers, (e) professional development, and (f) enabling conditions. These results provide knowledge informing stakeholders of what can lead to improved faculty use of educational technology. Faculty use of LMSs is integral to improving access to higher education globally. These research findings may contribute to understanding why faculty hesitated to use Moodle LMS for instructional delivery. Reduced faculty hesitation in using LMSs at higher education institutions can lead to the realization of Sustainable Development Goal Four, the delivering of quality education effectively. Student access to personalized, continuous learning using LMSs will foster positive social change

Systematic review on digital transformation among teachers in public schools

Radical changes across almost all areas, including education, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. One of the rapid transformations is digital learning, also known as e-learning. Digital learning transformation has been taking place for more than a decade. However, little comprehensive analysis of digital transformation in teaching in public schools. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no comprehensive analysis incorporates external and internal barriers and examines the prominent theories to study successful e-learning integration among teachers. The aim of this study was to provide a thematic and theoretical understanding of digital learning transformation among teachers in public schools. The data for the study was acquired from the Scopus databases. The study employed content and comparative analysis and advocated a grounded theory approach to inductively analyze and criticize the theme construction for answering two research questions. Based on a set of criteria to determine whether each derived study should be included or excluded, 42 articles were reviewed between 2010 and 2022. The analysis uncovered 10 themes of antecedents that were constructed as a framework based on the first-second-order barriers. Results also indicated that CHAT, TPACK, TAM, and UTAUT are the most prominent theories used to conduct digital transformation research. The findings offered significant implications for digital transformation and educational technology communities, especially for policymakers to strategize and reflect on the practice they implemented and improvised if necessary for future sustainable education and efficient teachers’ performance in teaching