A comprehensive innovation diffusion model in a higher educational setting: Post facto formative research

The purpose of this research is to create a comprehensive innovation adoption model for higher education institutes to facilitate changes more effectively. Despite the wide use of the diffusion of innovation frameworks in school settings, educational innovations have not successfully been implemented in higher education (Rogers, 1995; Rogers & Shoemaker, 1971). The major reason is that most diffusions of educational innovation are developed outside the environment of higher education institutions (Rogers & Shoemaker, 1971). That leads to two critical problems: (1) the incompatibility of the innovation with the values of the school, and (2) incongruence between the adoption units' felt needs and the decision unit's real needs.; In this research, I will create a comprehensive diffusion of innovation model, called the Participative Diffusion of Innovation Model, based on a case study of a higher education institution in Indiana. The first task in the Participative Diffusion of Innovation Model is conducting a concerns analysis of the adoption units. Also, I propose a framework, the concerns matrix, to analyze the concerns of the adoption units. The concerns matrix gives systemic perspectives, which incorporate personal as well as organizational level concerns.; The ultimate goal of this study is to develop a model to guide facilitation of implementation of an innovation in a higher education setting, a model that combines features of Rogers and Shoemaker (1971), Hall and Hord (1978), and insights deduced from interviews with the faculty members of the Saint Meinrad School of Theology located in Southern Indiana. For this research, I interviewed 26 teaching faculty of the Saint Meinrad school of Theology who participated in an information technology project at the seminary from 1995--2000. I hope the result of this study gives some insights into conducting effective diffusion of innovation projects in higher education settings.; However, one intrinsic limitation is present in this research. Though it has strong support from the literature, the result of this study is based on only one particular case, the Saint Meinrad School of Theology. It remains to be seen whether or not these results will transfer to other higher educational institutions.