Acceptance of Moodle as a Teaching/Learning Tool by the Faculty of the Department of Information Studies at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman based on UTAUT

Abstract

Article history: Received 18 February 2016 Revised 08 Marchl 2016 Accepted 11 April 2016 This research aims to explore the acceptance of Moodle as a teaching and learning tool by the faculty of the Department of Information Studies (IS) at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in the Sultanate of Oman. The researchers employed the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to examine the effects of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions on the behavioural intention of SQU faculty members to employ Moodle in their instruction. Data were collected by the interview method. Results showed the emergence of two faculty groups: one uses Moodle and one does not use Moodle. In group that uses Moodle, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and behavioural intention are positively related, thereby influencing the faculty members’ use behavior. In addition to the aforementioned UTAUT constructs, four additional factors affect Moodle’s adoption. These moderators are gender, age, experience and the voluntariness of use, amongst which gender exhibits the least influence on Moodle adoption. That is, male and female faculty generally both use the learning platform. Although some members of the group that does not use Moodle exhibit optimistic performance expectancy for technology, the overall perception in this regard for Moodle is negative. The other UTAUT constructs exert no influence on this group’s adoption of the learning platform.