Nowadays the use of Web-Based Instruction (WBI) has significant impacts on every aspect of our lives.

In
the context of education industry more and more school and education institutions have come to realize
the potential impact of using the WBI in the classroom as part of the learning environment. Despite the
many challenges yet to be overcome, the advantages of WBI have been widely recognized. Some of
these major advantages include flexibility and broader accessibility (Lee, Cheung, & Chen, 2005),
improved students’ performance (Alavi, 1994), reflective evaluation of the learning experience (Hiltz,
1995), and higher computer self-efficacy (Piccoli, Ahmad, & Ives, 2001). Academic institutions also
benefit in terms of cost reductions and increasing revenues (Saadé and Bahli, 2005). The success of Web
usage for learning is primarily due to its potential to integrate various types of media such as audio,
video, graphics, animation and text and delivered in various forms.

Statement of the problem:

Schools are witnessing a profound increase in the use of multimedia presentations, video
teleconferencing, and, more currently, Web-Based Instruction (WBI). WBI presents great potential for
instructional improvement by providing ready access to information and allowing more interaction
between teachers and learners (Hill, 1997). In order to meet the diverse needs of their teachers when
integrating WBI into their subjects, most schools have adopted a few major brands of commercial
course management software. Nowadays we have heard that information technologies are going to
change school education especially in the way teachers teach and the way our students will learn. But
most of us have seen little evidence to support the claim. In fact, teachers utilization of innovative
technologies has remained low (Surry and Land, 2000).

The integration of technology such as WBI into the classroom has remained low and educational
technology use has been minimal, infrequent, and limited as an add-on rather than as indispensable to
teaching and learning (Becker, 1991). Surry and Ely (2002) diagnosed, as a reason for this lack of
utilization, which instructional designers had focused on developing. They added that there is no
guarantee for diffusion of instructional technologies itself. While the diffusion and implementation of
innovation is important. Rogers (1995) and Stockdill and Morehouse (1992) described, it is a complex
process that is influenced by many factors. Technological superiority is only one of a number of factors
that influence a person’s decision about whether or not to adopt an innovation. A more complex
interaction of social, economic, organizational, and individual factors influence which technologies are
adopted and how much they are used after they have been adopted.

As one of the major areas of diffusion of innovation study, instructional technologies have focused on
the identification of the significant factors contributing to educational technology implementation. Most
studies of this issue have been simply investigating factors or have confined the research scope to only
examine either the psychological perspective of factors (Marcinkiewicz, 1994; McKinney, Sexton, &
Meyerson, 1999; Olech, 1997), or the external or environmental perspective of factors (Daugherty and
Funke, 1998; Groves & Zemel, 2000), disregarding other relevant variables.
Daugherty and Funke’s (1998) study focused only on the teacher’s perceived supports or incentives as
factors influencing the use of Web-Based instruction. They surveyed school teachers and students
involved in Web-Based instruction on the advantages, disadvantages, and general effectiveness of using
the Internet as a teaching and learning tool. Teachers reported the lack of technical support, lack of
software or adequate equipment, lack of teachers or administrative support, the amount of preparation
time, and student resistance are barriers to use Web-Based instruction.

According to Hamilton and Thompson (1992) in reality it is assumed that a person will be influenced by
psychological and also environmental factors at the same time for a decision to adopt or utilize an
innovation and Ely (1999) identified eight environmental conditions. His approach recognizes that the
characteristics of adopters and the innovation are not the only factors influencing its diffusion. His
research suggests that the environment such as supports and incentives in which the innovation is to be
introduced can play an equally important role in determining a change effort’s success.

In the this study, the three categories of variables known to relate to the level of innovation use are
identified based on the diffusion and innovation models. First, in the area of personal characteristics,
previous experience and self-efficacy are selected as key variables. Second, complexity and relative
advantage in this study are selected for the area of perceived attributes of innovation. Last, for the area
of perception of influence and support from the environment, supports, and time are selected. To go
beyond the single-equation approach using multiple regressions and address the associated limitations,
structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used. Using this technique, indirect effects among variables
are identified in the model that is specified from the literature and theories by the researcher. These
indirect effects, when added to the direct effects in the model, allow the determination of total causal
effects.