Using ICT in Higher Education: Perceptions of the Academic Staff in a Public University of Mexico

Transcription

1 US-China Education Review B, ISSN June 2014, Vol. 4, No. 6, D DAVID PUBLISHING Using ICT in Higher Education: Perceptions of the Academic Staff in a Public University of Mexico Maria de Jesus Araiza Vazquez Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Nuevo León, México Armando Kutugata Estrada Universidad Iberoamericana, Monterrey, México This article is the result of a research with the objective of identifying the perceptions of the academic staff in relation to the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the learning and teaching processes. These professor staff teach in four carriers offered in a public Mexican university in the area of social science and administration. The methodology applied started from the analysis of literature related to the perceptions of teachers and the impact and use of ICT in higher education. Even more, data were gathered from a survey answered by the academic staff in order to know the teachers point of view in the use of ICT by analyzing the results of frequency and triangulation of variables. The main results show that the academic staff of this public institute have positive perceptions towards the use of ICT; on the other hand, they revealed their reality in the implementation and use of ICT in their daily teaching experience in the classrooms. Diverse causes and situations are presented in this research, concluding a series of recommendations in order to improve the implementation and the successful use of ICT in higher education. Keywords: information and communications technology (ICT), higher education, ICT adoption, ICT integration Introduction Even though several researches have stated that cognitive opportunities are related with the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the learning and teaching processes (Salomón, 1993; Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999; Oliver & Hannfin, 2000), they also revealed the difficulties in the implementation and efficiency regarding the application of ICT in schools (Hamilton, 1998). The general hypothesis is that once the hardware and software are available in schools, the integration of ICT would be reached automatically. One of the keys to determine the success or failure of any initiative of implementation of ICT in education is the teacher. Roblyer (1993) stated that the vision of the use of ICT from a professor would increase the efficiency in his/her performance as well as the learning degree of his/her students. Martin (2000) stated the importance of professors in relation to the effectiveness within the integration of ICT as follows: Without the conviction or acceptance of the professors, the developments of the educational projects with technologies useful are complex. The professors are not only the custodians of the classroom; they are the mayor source of information near the plans of studies and the educative contents. (p. 8) Maria de Jesus Araiza Vazquez, Ed.D., Ph.D., professor, Faculty of Accounting and Administration, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Armando Kutugata Estrada, M.A., Ph.D., professor, Faculty of Education, Universidad Iberoamericana.

2 382 USING ICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF However, the effort of the academic staff in the integration of ICT in the study plans was limited frequently by external barriers, such as the lack of access to hardware and software, the insufficient time to plan the instructions when they have to use ICT, and teachers beliefs about the teaching and learning processes form a traditional strategy (Ertmer, Addison, Lane, Ross, & Woods, 1999; Pelgrum, 2001). Considering the struggle with outstanding users of ICT, barriers were also revealed in terms of practical and philosophical process of integration in the educational structure (Hadley & Sheingold, 1993; Norton, McRobbie, & Cooper, 2000; Cuban, 2001). As a result of this change, the teaching process is now comparing the strategies among the traditional ways of teaching. Morrison, Lowther, and DeMeulle (1999) stated that ICT has become an instrument complementary in the classroom, in space and time. According to a research done in schools of the United States by Means, Penuel, and Padilla (2001), the lack of access to ICT and technical support generates discomfort in professors when they have a need to incorporate the use of ICT in their teaching, the minimum high quality of contents in their specialties, and the lack of support from their superiors in the integration of ICT in their educational planning. Mumtaz (2000) in his research identified a list of several inhibitors that block the professors using ICT with efficiency, which are generating experiences using ICT, such as a multidisciplinary education integrating the following areas: pedagogy, technological, and instructional designers that give support to professors integrating ICT in their teaching programs; time to do the integration; as well as the financial support that was required to do this tasks. Therefore, in order to integrate ICT into the processes of teaching and learning in higher education, universities should promote their own experiences of learning using ICT in their educational programs, changing their own didactic strategies and instructional materials used by professors as well as their communication systems and distribution of knowledge. The new modalities applied in the training of academic staff with the integration of ICT are now promoting a new optic of the learning process, where students are the center and main focus of the learning and teaching processes and becoming active actors who are responsible for their own learning experience. The role of a professor would be modified to become a tutor supporting the students in their educational process, change the paradigm of a traditional professor, demand an increase and development of skills in the use and application of ICT, give support to the students in terms of the correct use of the media, and guide and support the educational platform and all its components. A constant preoccupation of the experts in education and implementation of ICT is the challenge of transforming the thinking and actions of the professors in the use and integration of ICT in their daily teaching practice in order to increase their achievements towards the change of attitude and skills been developed once they are able to use ICT on a regular base. The present research has been motivated by this concern and the fact that there is a distance between the perception of reality of the professors and the needs and requirements offered to them to integrate ICT into their curricula in higher education. Literature Review The implementation of ICT in education is a relevant factor in favor of the excellency in learning and teaching processes, giving the construction of knowledge through the educational strategies selected (Gómez, 2008). This research is searching the perceptions of the professors in the process of integration of ICT within

3 USING ICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF 383 the instruction in higher education considering three variables: perceptions of the professors, degree of use of ICT, and the impact this use might reveal. Izquierdo and Prado (2007) suggested that the use of ICT in higher education reveals the need to transform the methodological work and the training of academic staff that might intervene in the educational process of the curricula and educational programs. Description of the Community and Objects of the Study The present research was developed in a public Mexican university, consisting of 467 professors, among which, 258 had a contract by course, 72 had a part-time contract, and137 had a full-time contract. In regards to the experience working in the university, 52% were new staff members with less than 10 years of teaching experience in this university; on the other hand, 12 % had years of experience, 24% had years of experience, and 12 % had 30 years or more of teaching experience in this university. A total of 168 professors (36% of the total number of the professors) are part of a generation of professionals who did not use ICT in their own studies of higher education, taking into consideration that the use of personal computers were first used after the 1980 s. This 36% portion of the professionals were trained in the use of ICT in their working fields, such as industries and companies of diverse branches. Among the 467 professors, 265 of them (56.74%) had a Master s degree. Nature of the Problem According to Maestre, Fonseca, and Valdés (2007), the level of success, in terms of the implementation of ICT, is directly related with the level of acceptance and involvement of the professors, as well as their level of domain and skills within the use of the teconolgy. The application of ICT in Mexican universities has been a slow and complicated process (Andión, 2002), taking into considerastion the acquisition of new equipment and the training required to successfully use update its implementation. This occurs because some professors have been working for the past decades in a traditional way without the use of ICT, some do not have the skills of knowledge of the new technology, and others have a hard time coping with new paradigms in terms of education and the use of ICT (Alonso & Fracchia, 2009). We can also find that some professors have the skills and abilities of using ICT, but lack of didactic knowledge in terms of methodology and designing educational platforms (Collier, 2001). Another factor that might explain the main cause of the impediment to the professors use of ICT is the difference in generations. This can be the reason why professors over 40 years old might have a difficult time coping with the use of ICT according to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). OECD (2001) stated that professors over 40 years old would not have the skills or training in the use of new technologies. Therefore, the implementation in Mexican universities would take a long process with a substantial effort from academic authorities and technological personnel. The Mexican university selected for this research fits into this category, having 35.9% of his teaching staff over the age of 40. According to several studies (Aduviri, 2007; Martín-Laborda, 2005; Ortega, 2005), in order for the higher education universities to have outstanding implementation of ICT in their curricula and courses, they must change the attitude of their teaching staff towards new educational models based on the use of ICT. The best way to do so is the constant training courses and incentives received by the institution in the use and application of ICT in their classes.

4 384 USING ICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF When a university has a strategic plan to integrate ICT in their programs and curricula, reaching the objectives becomes a reality. That is the case of Penn State University, which elaborated a successful plan in the use and design of its courses with ICT in One relevant factor found by the Penn State University was the constant training of its teaching staff using the World Wide Web, as well as academic papers and journals in order to provide feedback to their members in regards to the use and implementation of new technologies in their classes. Nowadays, the Penn State University is considered one of the best traditional universities with outstanding distance programs in its virtual campus (Sangrà, 2002). Methodology Type of the Research This research is a mixed study design using many kinds of instruments, such as surveys and interviews, systematic sampling, key informant, casual sampling, and random sample techniques. Population and Sampling The size of the sample was taken using the following formula: N = ((Z (s))/e)2 In this formula, N is the population of 467 subjects; Z is the value degree of confidence determined (95%), having a normal curve according the value of 1.96; s is the standard deviation; and E is the error considered by the research team (5%). The standard deviation (s) was considered using the results of a previous study with the determination of 50% of the professors not using ICT. According to this data, 233 professors are above the medium and 233 are scoring under the medium, having a standard deviation of 116. This gives us a sampling of 95 professors. In order to select the sample, the systematic sampling technique was applied. Having access to a list of all the professors, the first subject was taken by random, and from that point, the rest was chosen taking the fifth place of the members in the list, until conforming composing a list of 95 subjects. Other groups of professors were composed using the following techniques: 1. Key informant technique: It selected three professors who had the profile and relevant administrative responsibilities inside the university and hold the following positions: the head master of the faculty, the sub-principal, and the academic secretary of the institution; 2. Casual sampling: It selected three professors who are available and willing to participate in the research; 3. Random sample: It selected another three professors who were invited to participate and were chosen randomly from the original list of the 95 professors. Instruments and Sample The instruments applied in this research were surveys and semi-structured interviews. The surveys were validated and reliable with a descriptive view with the respective authorization by its author given the needs professors demand and require in order to implement ICT in their academic programs. The semi-structure interviews in situ, which were applied in the working atmosphere in the daily situations surrounding the academic staff of the public university, have three types: A, B, and C. The A type was used with the objective of gaining data from the academic authorities of the university regarding the needs and requirements in the application of ICT within the daily work of the professors in their fields; the B type was applied to the three professors to triangulate the data from all the instruments used; and the C type was

5 USING ICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF 385 applied to all those professors who claimed that they used ICT in their classes and registered their experiences in that use. Validation The first type of validation was the constructs needs of the training, support, and use. The second type consisted in the validation of content of each question of the interviews. For both procedures, the judgment of experts was used. These experts, including a psychologist, a member of the university; a professor of the Postgraduate School of the Faculty of Psychology, a philosophiae doctor (Ph.D.) in education from the Faculty of Nutrition; and a psychologist from the Postgraduate School of the Science School of Education of the Mexican Border of Education, participated in this study. All the questions from the script of the interviews were addressed to this academic group, having several recommendations, such as distribution of items, rephrase of questions, and use of concept to avoid confusion to the participants. Ethics Protecting Privacy of the Participants All of the professors participated in a voluntary way. All the information regarding the use and process applied in the research was discussed with them. A calendar was formulated to avoid disturbances with their daily work in and out of the classrooms. A transcript was written from the interviews and all the information was codified using pseudonyms to preserve their identity. All the notes, paper work, and binnacles are kept under lock by the research team. Results Results of the First Group In the first group of academic authorities, the results of the interviews gave the following information: 1. ICT tools were effective to promote the quality in the learning and teaching experiences in classrooms; 2. The use of ICT gave access to the students at all times and any place; 3. The use of ICT in academic programs was essential in these days, considering the working atmosphere in today s companies and industries. The effectiveness of ICT tools depends on the skills of the students and professors in the effective use of it. Its use promotes an active and motivative class for the students, increasing their learning performance of diverse courses. The academic staff have access to computer equipment 15 hours a day from Monday to Friday and eight hours on Saturday and Sunday. A variety of technologies available to the academic staff consist of: computers in all the classrooms, a academic platform where the professors can upload material for their classes, interactive boards, having access to the Internet, projectors, and specialized software. Offering a professional major in ICT, the faculty having access to equipment and software actualize all of these in a regular base. Nevertheless, it was also considered the need to increase a more effective training in the use and application of ICT, mixing the pedagogical and technical areas required to be mastered from the staff. One of the major problems in the academic staff is that those professionals who besides teaching part-time or by courses, also have a professional working life in the field. Working in other companies and industries adds experience and knowledge to their courses but limits their available time to train and learn more in terms of the implementation of ICT and continuous training courses to increase their areas of expertise. It was also considered a relevant need to add stimulus in the academic staff to increase and keep up their

6 386 USING ICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF training programs, offering diverse advantages to those who have a genuine interest in their performance as outstanding professionals in the academic field. The need of creating a constant supervision in their training was also considered, increasing these courses with a practical perspective and a pedagogical, technological, and didactic course in order to implement with the quality requested by the academic authorities of the institution. According to Marcelo (1999), when training professors in the use of ICT, it is relevant to consider the didactic knowledge on content, the pedagogical knowledge transmitted, as well as the way that this information is given to them. Results of the Second Group In the second group of interviews (three full-time professors), the results of the interviews revealed that: 1. The academic staff had a profound need for training courses regarding the use and implementation of ICT; 2. They also admited that even thought the institution offered equipment and software, they required courses and training programs to provide support in the use and integration of this technology into their courses. Even though they had access to several courses regarding teaching and pedagogical themes, courses relate to the use of ICT were also required. They also mentioned the need for flexible hours for these courses considering the faculty offers three different schedules for the classes (the morning period, afternoon, and evening). One professor mentioned the constant use of the projector and computer in his classes, but he was not really talking advantage of the educational platform and all the other tools the platform offers. They also felt that the institution is the one responsible for giving the example with the use of ICT at all times in their daily work. Results of the Third Group The third and last group (95 professors) answered a survey of three segments as follows: The first segment gathered personal information regarding their personal and professional profile information, such as age, gender, educational degree, and years of experience in the teaching field. From the sample, there are 60% males and 40% females, aged between 20 and 60, among which, 8.42% are between 20 and 30 years old, 32.63% between 31 and 40 years old, 22.10% between 41 and 50 years old, 21.05% between 51 and 60 years old, 15.78% are 61 years old or more. In terms of their teaching experience, 40.23% have 1-10 years experience, 16.83% have years, 29.26% have years, and 13.68% have 30 years or more. In terms of their educational degree, the participants showed diverse areas, such as accounting, administration, finances, costs, law, and economics, which are the most typical in the sampling. The second segment registered the experience in the use of ICT and the strategies to apply them in academic courses. According to the result, 35.7% considered that their use and knowledge of ICT were in a basic level, 35.78% in a medium level, 12.63% under the basic level, and 15.78% in an advanced level (see Figure 1). On the other hand, in relation to the application of ICT in courses to improve the learning experience of the students, 9.47% considered themselves being in a range of advance level, 37.89% were placed in a medium level, 36.84% were in a basic level, and 15.78% were placed under a low level. The third segment of the survey revealed their opinions in relation to their perceptions of the integration of ICT in the curricula, the resources they have in the institution, the competence they required, and the specific use they must use in order to maximize its use and the need of training in relation to the use and integration of

7 USING ICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF 387 ICT in their daily work (see Tables 1 and 2). Advanced 16% Lower than basic 12% Basic 36% Medium 36% Figure 1. Training level in ICT applied to education. Table 1 Distribution of Media Used by Teachers in the Institution Media Very little (%) Little (%) Quite (%) Much (%) No response (%) Multimedia projects Educational software Electronic sites Management software Word processors Spreadsheets Databases Television, video, digital video disk (DVD) Video camera and photo Scanner and printer Presenters Click exercise programs Educational platforms Transparencies Text editors, audio, etc Books and printed materials Electronic resources Notes. * p < 0.01; ** α = Table 2 Training Needs in ICT Use of Teachers Training needs Strongly Strongly No Disagree (%) Agree (%) disagree (%) agree (%) (%) Utilitarian tools Multimedia presentations Integration strategies ICT in the classroom Websites Educational software Multimedia tools (audio and sound) Currents learning with ICT-supported teaching Internet and Web environment answer

8 388 USING ICT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF (Table 2 to be continued) Specific sites for integration into the teaching Use of ICT in virtual learning environments Basic ICT skills Integration with specialized virtual learning communities ICT integration with didactic proposals Training for ICT curriculum integration Specific sites for integration into teaching Notes. * p < 0.01; ** α = In a general sense, all the participants believed that the use of ICT would increase the level of learning in their students when integrating ICT in a holistic way. This holistic perspective would consider a pedagogical, didactic, and technical view. Taking into consideration the nature of the courses and the term of the semester, each subject is offered in the academic programs of the several majors designs. When these areas are not considered, the application and implementation would lack of efficiency as other studies offered a similar point of view (such as Becker, 2001; Cuban, Kirkpatrick & Pack, 2001; Fisher, 1996; OCDE, 2004; Rodríguez, 2000; Fernández & Cebreiro, 2003), mentioning the deficiencies done by professors in the right application and implementation of ICT. Most trainees focus on the technical use of the media and avoid the pedagogical implications that are required to consider in the implementation of ICT (Sanabria, 2004; Ornellas, 2007). Therefore, the acquisition of technology in universities and training in its use are not enough to implement the ICT with success and excellence in their learning and teaching processes. Conclusions In a general sense, the authorities and academic staff of the institution that were analyzed in this research agreed that the application and use of ICT in their programs increased their students learning process and allowed to have a stronger communication between peers, students, and professors in and out of the classrooms. They also believed that a certification for academics is required in order to learn the pedagogical and didactic use of ICT in the curriculum. Having access to equipment, Internet, platforms, and software would help to achieve the goal of increasing the integration of ICT in the entire curriculum, considering the profile and characteristics of the academic professionals. In order to achieve the objectives stated before, the creation of a multidiscipline cell must be formed. Academic staff integrated by psychologists, pedagogical educators, technical members, and instructional designers would work as team members with the professors with the intention to integrate ICT with efficiency to increase the level of learning in favor of the students in higher education. The creation of training and proficiency programs would give the way to the academic staff in a medium and long term. In a practical strategy, the tutoring of experts in the use of ICT with rookie users will give an answer to the need of integrating these new pedagogical strategies with the quality expected by the directives of any higher education institute. References Aduviri, R. (2007). Nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (NTIC) en educación (New tecnologies of information and comunication in education). Retrieved from p-r-o-y-e-c-t-o-e-d-u-c-a-ti-v-o

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