Examining TESOL Teachers’ Perceptions of Learning Management Systems in the States of Alabama and Mississippi

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of selected factors on the adoption of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) by Teaching English to Speakers of Other languages (TESOL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers. Rogers’ (2003) theory of Diffusion of Innovation was used to examine the characteristics of LMS among TESOL/ESL teachers using five main characteristics: relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, observability, and complexity. This study examined the relationships between characteristics of teachers, characteristics of innovation, and barriers influencing the adoption of LMS. This was a descriptive and correlational study, participants were asked to complete a five Likert-scale online survey entitled TESOL/ESL Teacher’s Perceptions of LMS (see Appendix A). A sample of ninety-nine TESOL/ESL teachers were selected and used for this study. Based on participants’ response, more than half of TESOL/ESL teachers from Alabama and Mississippi reported that they were either in the implementation stage (32.3%) or the confirmation stage (36.4%). Seven percent had no knowledge of the innovation; 6% were in the persuasion stage; 7% were in the decision stage. TESOL/ESL teachers perceived all of the five constructs (complexity, trialability, relative advantage, observability, compatibility) as moderate characteristics to the adoption of LMS. The characteristics that had higher values (ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high)) were: complexity (M=4.07, SD=0.63), compatibility (M=3.86, SD=0.77), relative advantage (M=3.76, SD=0.77). The characteristics that had lower mean values included observability (M=3.68, SD=0.88), and trialability (M=3.64, SD=0.82). The teachers perceived all of the five constructs (time concerns, planning concerns, financial concerns, technology concerns, and concerns about incentives) as moderate barriers to the adoption of LMS. The barriers that had higher values (ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high)) were planning concerns (M=3.66, SD=0.90), concerns about times (M=3.54, SD=0.96), concerns about incentives (M=3.53, SD=0.91). Barriers that had lower values included technology concerns (M=3.47, SD=0.81), and financial concerns (M=3.48, SD=0.98).