THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON,1999
SOCIAL WORK (0452); EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGY (0710); EDUCATION, HIGHER (0745)
Distance education is increasingly being used throughout higher education and
social work education
due to recent technological advances in the areas of television and the Internet.
Faculty in these
programs has responded with a variety of attitudes and perceptions regarding
these innovative
educational tools. This study examines the relationship of 19 variables hypothesized
to be correlated
with usage or likelihood of usage of the distance education media of television
and the Internet by social
work faculty. Rogers' (1983) Diffusion of Innovation theory was used to identify
these variables that
included six innovational attributes, six individual attributes, five institutional
attributes and two
organizational function attributes. In order to answer the above questions,
a study sample of social work
faculty in the United States (n = 428) was surveyed about their attitudes and
perceptions regarding their
usage and likelihood of usage of the distance education media of television
and the Internet. Nineteen
hypotheses were tested utilizing logistic regression analysis. The analysis
indicated five main findings:
(1) The innovational attributes are all significantly associated with
the outcome variables of usage
and likelihood of usage of distance education media, television and the Internet
by the study sample of
social work faculty. (2) The individual attributes of the study sample
of social work faculty were not
as important as hypothesized. Most of the individual attributes were not significantly
associated with the
outcome variables. (3) The institutional attribute of institutional
support was significantly related to
usage and willingness to use the distance education media of television and
the Internet by the study
sample of social work faculty. (4) The organizational function attributes
of organizational support
and plan were significantly associated with all of the outcome variables. (5) The
predictor variables
for usage and likelihood of usage of distance education media do not vary considerably
for the study
sample of social work faculty. The variables that are associated with faculty
using and willingness to use
distance education media in teaching have implications for how social work programs
can impact the
development of faculty adopting the use of the distance education media, television
and the Internet.
Social
Systems Simulation Group
P.O. Box 6904 San Diego, CA 92166-0904 Roland Werner, Principal Phone/FAX (619) 660-1603 |