Does the Lecturer’s Innovativeness Drive VLE Adoption in Higher Education Institutes? (A Study Based on Extended UTAUT)

The focus of this study is on lecturer’s use of online technology in the higher education context.Precisely, this study aims to understand the effect of personal innovativeness in IT (PI) in determiningtechnology adoption behavior of lecturers in the higher education institutes in Sri Lanka. In this study,the variable of personal innovativeness in IT is integrated with the UTAUT framework and thereby thecausal paths which effects VLE adoption intention of individuals is examined. Literature suggests thatdomain-specific innovativeness is a crucial factor in determining an individual’s adoption oftechnological innovations. Therefore, understanding the multifaceted effects of this factor along withother significant factors can help higher education institutes to effectively endorse online technologyamong lectures, generating productive payoffs in the long run. The quantitative method was used fordata collection, which yielded # 1253 responses through the Question Pro online survey tool. Thetargeted respondents were the registered lecturers in higher education institutes of Sri Lanka, selectedbased on simple random sampling method. Structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure wasemployed for data analysis using IBM SPSS (ver.21) and AMOS (Ver.26). The structural pathanalysis resulted in partial mediation, confirming that “lecturer’s innovativeness in IT” exerts itsinfluence on VLE adoption intention by altering the mediators set in the study. Further, the studyvalidated a unique set of factors that determine lecturer’s acceptance of VLE in a higher educationsetting.