Determinants of Educational Technology Acceptance: Medical Teachers' Perception.

Abstract

Background: Educational technology is becoming an additional tool for interaction between students and teachers, along with traditional systems, in developing and improving the quality of education. The activities of faculty members have a direct impact on the overall quality of the educational process. Therefore, this study aimed to determine factors affecting educational technology adoption in the medical education context.

Methods: A sequential qualitative-quantitative mixed-method approach was used for this research. Firstly, a scoping literature review on related studies was conducted to extract involved factors in the adaption of educational technology. Next, using the three-round Fuzzy Delphi method, experts' perspectives about these factors were obtained. The Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (F. DEMATEL) was applied to investigate the relationships among these factors, and the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method was used to rank them.

Results: Conducting the scoping review resulted in extracting the factors affecting educational technology adoption in education, which were organized into nine indicators and four categories, including perceived usefulness, improved performance, social benefit, and facilitating processes through a three-round Delphi. The weights of these indicators were determined in the third and fourth steps of the study.

Conclusion: The findings of this study determined the most important factors affecting the acceptance of educational technologies, showed their relationship, and prioritized them. These findings can be used to integrate technology into the educational environment effectively. Investigating other factors according to the level of majors at the universities is recommended for future studies.