EXPANSION RATE IN THE PROCESS OF BLENDED LEARNING ADOPTION BY ACADEMICS

The aim of this paper is to present the results of a study around the process of blended learning adoption by academics (professors, lecturers, associates, etc). The acknowledged models of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) were used as a theoretical framework for the design of a predictive model. More specifically, firstly, we tried to assess the attributes that characterize the process of blended-learning adoption, in terms of the innovation reached (Advantage, Complexity, Compatibility, Visibility); and secondly, we sought to identify profiles or different categories of users regarding the innovation, in accordance with certain individual characteristics (age, sex, occupational status, teaching experience, discipline, category etc.). Finally, with the two domains analyzed (innovation and individual characteristic) we make inferences around the rate of expansion in the process of blended-learning adoption by academics, by identifying stages of this process. The study included 486 teachers from different universities in the Autonomous Community of Castile and León (Spain). Data analysis was made by descriptive and bivariate tests, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and causal analysis, according to Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), with parameter estimation using the Maximum Likelihood (ML) to contrast proposed structural equation and relationships.