The use of technology as one of the possible means of performing instructor tasks: Putting technology acceptance in context

For many instructors in higher education, use of a learning management system (LMS) is de facto mandatory. Nevertheless, instructors often have much freedom in deciding which functionalities of the LMS they use; that is, whether they perform each individual instructor task using the LMS. Alternatively, they may perform one specific instructor task using alternative means, or, quite often, not perform it at all. The current Technology Acceptance model (TAM) fails to describe this decision process accurately, as TAM (1) does not focus on the level of the individual task; (2) does not make a distinction between not performing a task and performing a task using alternative means; and (3) does not recognize one important factor that affects the performance of a specific task—task importance. A test of three different models shows that the decision process is best represented as a two-step process. First, influenced by task importance, a choice is made to either perform a specific task or not. Second, after the decision has been made to perform the task, and influenced by the usefulness and ease of use of the LMS, a choice is made between performing the task using the LMS and using alternative means.

► An instructor's decision to use an LMS is best represented as a two-step process.
► The first choice is to either perform a specific instructor task or not.
► The first choice is influenced by task importance.
► The second choice is between using the LMS and using alternative means.
► The second choice is influenced by the usefulness and ease of use of the LMS.