the affect of lecturers' attitude on students' use of an online learning environment
There has been a dramatic increase in the development of technology-based learning and teaching. Large number of educational institutes are now offering web-based courses. In order to satisfy the needs of these organizations many tools have been developed such as: WebCT and blackboard. The increased use of technology in the teaching and learning process has highlighted the importance of understanding how these technologies improve the learning process. Research in this area is way behind the increase of activity in practice. This study investigates how instructors' attitude toward using WebCT affects students' satisfaction and performance on a web-based course. 131 students from Brunel University participated in this study. Their performance on two WebCT-based modules (referred to as module A and module B in this paper) were observed. A five point Likert scale was used to measure students' attitude toward WebCT for each module. Statistical data about students' activities on WebCT was collected from the WebCT tracking system. Results suggest that lecturers' attitudes towards using WebCT have an impact on students' attitudes to WebCT. Moreover the results show that the lecturers' method of using WebCT also affected students' activities on WebCT. The results of this study suggest more research should be undertaken on the impact of instructional behaviour on students' learning process on web enhanced courses.
webct students' attitude instructor attitude web-enhanced course achievement