Does the Lecturer’s Innovativeness Drive VLE Adoption in Higher Education Institutes? (A Study Based on Extended UTAUT)

The focus of this study is on lecturer’s use of online technology in the higher education context. Precisely, this study aims to understand the effect of personal innovativeness in IT (PI) in determining technology adoption behavior of lecturers in the higher education institutes in Sri Lanka. In this study, the variable of personal innovativeness in IT is integrated with the UTAUT framework and thereby the causal paths which effects VLE adoption intention of individuals is examined. Literature suggests that domain-specific innovativeness is a crucial factor in determining an individual’s adoption of technological innovations. Therefore, understanding the multifaceted effects of this factor along with other significant factors can help higher education institutes to effectively endorse online technology among lectures, generating productive payoffs in the long run. The quantitative method was used for data collection, which yielded # 1253 responses through the Question Pro online survey tool. The targeted respondents were the registered lecturers in higher education institutes of Sri Lanka, selected based on simple random sampling method. Structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure was employed for data analysis using IBM SPSS (ver.21) and AMOS (Ver.26). The structural path analysis resulted in partial mediation, confirming that “lecturer’s innovativeness in IT” exerts its influence on VLE adoption intention by altering the mediators set in the study. Further, the study validated a unique set of factors that determine lecturer’s acceptance of VLE in a higher education setting.