Factors Affecting Faculty Use of Video Conferencing in Teaching: A Mixed-method Study

Abstract

Teaching and learning can now utilize a variety of real-time technologies to build online social presence and learning interactions. However, teachers and students must effectively prepare for this experience; and the identification of contextual and perceptual influences become evolving and necessary (Lehman & Conceição, 2010; Liu & Kaye, 2016). In this paper, the authors explore factors that impact faculty use of synchronous video conferencing (VC) in teaching. The two-phase mixed-method study spanned a year, converging qualitative and quantitative approaches through observations and recordings during a 6-week faculty professional development program, a campus-wide survey, and focus groups. Thematic analysis was used for coding qualitative data (Guest, MacQueen, & Namey, 2012). Descriptive statistics, cross tabulation, logistic regression, and standard multiple regression were used to analyze quantitative data. A model with faculty demographic factors and perceived importance of technology features and quality for teaching was initially developed and tested, which explained 69.1% of the variance in predicting faculty use of VC technologies in teaching. The perceived importance of VC features and quality scale generated Cronbach's Alpha .866. The study then provides meaningful process and recommendations to define institutional support to the VC adoption in teaching.