Understanding the Influence of Perceived Usability and Technology Self-Efficacy on Teachers' Technology Acceptance

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) represents how users come to accept and use a given technology and can be applied to teachers' use of educational technologies. Here the model is extended to incorporate teachers' perceived usability and self-efficacy measures toward the technologies they are currently using. The authors administered a survey to K-12 teachers in two rural school districts in Virginia, and 99 teachers responded. We then analyzed the responses with both reliability statistics and general linear modeling techniques. The results indicated that the incorporation of perceived usability into the TAM explained more variance and was more influential to TAM elements than its absence, thereby supporting the importance, positive influence, and necessity of evaluating usability when investigating educational technology acceptance and usage behavior. Furthermore, the study found teachers' technology self-efficacy (TSE) was more beneficial to the TAM than their computer self-efficacy (CSE); however, this impact might vary for the evaluations of different populations and technologies.