This study revealed that while college and university teachers continue to emphasize traditional objectives such as critical thinking and acquiring knowledge and still rely on traditional methods to achieve those objectives, the growing importance of instructional technology cannot be denied. This study confirms that instructional technology will show a greater increased significance in the near future, especially in the way courses are delivered. Faculty members also cited advantages of e-books including instant updating capability, ease of customization and usability, and improved communication with students. Course websites, however, are becoming a fixture with Canadian post-secondary educators. More than half of the respondents have a Website for at least one of the courses that they teach.
University faculty are significantly more likely than college faculty to have a course website.
Lecture notes and quizzes on websites were ranked most important by 75 percent of respondents, followed by content specific links and communication, respectively. Developing and maintaining course websites is the most time intensive activity with 86 percent of participants saying that they are likely to devote more time to the web in the future. The study also revealed challenges for instructional technology. The first challenge facing faculty in using instructional technology is lack of support. The two largest obstacles blocking their progress with technology are support for integrating technology into current curriculum and support for hardware and software.