title: How Technology Promotes Educational Change: Studies of Virtual Learning Environment in Higher Education
Creators: name: Li, Na
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2022

description: Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), as the critical educational technology, have the potential to enable new learning opportunities (e.g., personalized adaptive learning and seamless mobile learning) and promote educational innovations for sustainable educational change in Higher Education (HE). While the research on VLEs and technology-enhanced learning in HE has been promising, the adoption of VLEs and the diffusion of educational innovations are not as widespread as expected, and the mechanism is unclear. Additionally, most the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have, until the recent COVID-19 disruption, been somewhat cautious about the potential educational reform. Whether the emergency educational transition is temporary or sustainable remains an open question. This research programme investigates how technology promotes educational change through six sub-studies of VLEs in HE. Five studies have been published as journal papers, while one is under review. Firstly, a systematic literature review was conducted to analyse the recent studies of VLE adoption from 2001 to 2020. Two-factor categories - institutional and individual were synthesized from 290 factors identified from findings of 145 studies across 42 countries and regions. Consequently, knowledge gaps of the institutional and individual factors and mechanisms were further investigated by conducting five studies from multiple perspectives. Specifically, four empirical studies examined three key aspects (institutional normative facilitating, institutional cognitive-cultural influence, and individual cognitions) of the VLE adoption and educational innovation institutionalisation in a Sino-British international university in China. The four studies employed various research methods (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed) to investigate technology promoted educational changes in different institutional stages at the individual and organisational levels. Finally, a conceptual study was conducted to reconceptualise the digital learning ecology model based on the existing literature and empirical findings at an institutional field level, a social arena in which individuals and organizations share a common meaning system (Scott, 2004). The main results revealed that VLEs could promote sustainable educational change through the technology-human interactions that are directed by the two-dimensional meaning-making process: collective cognitive consensus (i.e., national culture and learning community) and individual cognitive divergence (i.e., perceived pedagogical value, perceived self-efficacy, and perceptions of justice). This research programme contributes to the literature on Education, Information Technology, Psychology and Sociology by extending people’s understanding of the existing theories and models (e.g., Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, Institutionalisation Model, Social Learning Theory, Organizational Justice Theory and Equity Theory, HeXie Education Model) through the theory development and reconceptualisation. This research programme provides theoretical and practical implications to address the grand challenges in HE (i.e., success in technology adoption, widespread innovations, and sustainable educational change). The research findings suggested that educational policy makers and practitioners should include teachers and students as the co-creators of the future digital learning ecosystem, provide continuous teacher professional development in technological and pedagogical skills and knowledge, and develop student competence in self-directed learning and digital resilience. Educators, learners, and researchers should utilise the findings and supporting methods to develop innovative learning and teaching approaches. Future research is needed to test the theoretical models in other educational contexts (e.g., K12 and vocational) and geographies with larger samples to enhance global development.