Professional Documents
Culture Documents
IBRAHIM ABDALLA
which offer almost the same basic features of instructional platform. The
CMS e-Blackboard was introduced to the UAE University (UAEU) in 2002
as part of the strategic plan to integrate ICT into the curricula. The UAEU
investment in educational software and multimedia was coupled with great
efforts to shift to computer-aided classrooms. This shift was materialised by
the implementation of the Laptop Project in 2002.
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E-learning itself has as many meanings as there are a wide array of compo-
nents involved in designing different e-learning processes and environments.
It varies from one that has a small electronic component to that sophisticated
one, which conducts everything through pervasive use of w-ICTs. Such
varied meanings would of course yield several models; each of them
answers the needs of an e-learning process. Therefore, different e-learning
models have different combinations of various blended components (Taha,
2004). Hoppe and Breitner (2003) traced the evolution of asynchronous
learning, which took place through three appreciable dominant systems:
z Stand-alone (1950-90)
z Internet-based (1993-2004)
METHODOLOGY
Research Participants
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The measures that were considered in this study included student’s percep-
tion regarding (a) e-Blackboard ease of use, (b) usefulness, (c) attitude, and
(d) cognitive behaviour. A multistage sampling approach was used to
sample students at random. Three colleges were selected. Seven, nine, and
eight sections were selected randomly from COE, CIT, and CBE, respec-
tively.
DATA ANALYSIS
Sample Demographics
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the respondents had good experiences in using a laptop and surfing the
Web. Ninety percent (90%) of the respondents do access the Internet at
home and/or the university campus. Eighty percent (80%) used compatible
modems to the UAEU wireless network for reaching e-resources or scholarly
use of the Web.
Based on previous research, TAM and extended TAM models (e.g., Stoel &
Lee, 2003; Selim, 2003) the following TEM was proposed to examine
student’s perception of technology effectiveness. The PEOU and PU
hypothesized to determine learner’s attitude (LATT) towards the course
management system (CMS) technology. These hypotheses were key to
tackling the interactions between user behaviour and e-Blackboard environ-
ment to determine the effectiveness of the technology (EOT):
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RESULTS
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CONCLUSIONS
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Hoppe, D.G., & Breitner, M.H. (2003). Business models for elearning. Retrieved De-
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Rainbow, S.W., & Sadler-Smith, E. (2003). Attitudes to computer-assisted
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Selim, M. H. (2003). An empirical investigation of students’ acceptance of
course websites. Computers and Education, 40(4), 343-360.
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& Sons.
Stoel, L., & Lee, K.H. (2003). Modelling the effect of experience on stu-
dent acceptance of web-based courseware. Internet Research: Electronic
Networking Applications and Policy, 13(5), 364-374.
Taha, A. (2004, July). Networked e-information for support course website
process at UAE University. Proceedings of IADIS e-Society Conference,
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Tanaka, J.S. (1993). Multifaceted conceptions of fit in structural equations
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mr. Ahmed Taha, UAEU Library Specialist in e-Infor-
mation services for his thoughtful comments and assistance with the manu-
script.
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APPENDIX
SURVEY INDICATORS USED TO BUILD STRUCTURAL MODEL
CONSTRUCTS
PEOU
PU
LATT
EOT
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