Adopter characteristics and teaching styles of faculty adopters and nonadopters of a course management system

This study examines the effects of innovativeness and teaching style on the decision by higher education faculty to adopt or not adopt a new educational technology. The study attempts to determine a relationship between adoption or nonadoption of a course management system and either degree of innovativeness or teaching style. The study was influenced by Everett Rogers's Diffusion of Innovation theory and Anthony Grasha's Teaching Styles research.; The research was undertaken on the campus of a small, private engineering institution in Indiana in the spring of 2005. A purposive sample of 30 faculty adopters and 31 faculty nonadopters of a course management system were interviewed. Each subject was asked to indicate his or her degree of innovativeness using a rubric, and to complete the Grasha-Riechmann Teaching Styles Inventory in order to identify his or her teaching styles. In addition, each subject was asked about his or her reasons for choosing to adopt or not adopt the course management system.; The results of the study showed no significant relationship between the decision to adopt or not adopt the course management system and either degree of innovativeness or teaching style. However, the pattern of adoption decisions followed Rogers's diffusion theory. The primary factor in the decision to adopt or not adopt the course management system was the subject's perception of the relative advantage of adopting the technology.