Faculty Perceptions about Teaching Online: Exploring the Literature Using the Technology Acceptance Model as an Organizing Framework

Academic leaders can better implement institutional strategic plans to promote online programs if they understand faculty perceptions about teaching online. An extended version of a model for technology acceptance, or TAM2 (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000), provided a framework for surveying and organizing the research literature about factors that have influenced faculty’s adoption of online delivery methods for courses and their willingness to continue to teach online. This paper presents the results of a synthesis of 67 empirical studies about faculty teaching online published between 1995 and 2015, using TAM2 constructs as an organizing framework. This validated model provided a lens for understanding research about faculty perceptions of the user-friendliness and ease of use of technology for online course delivery, as well as the overall experience of teaching online. Studies in this review revealed concerns among faculty regarding their perceived barriers to student success in online classes, uncertainty about their image as online instructors, technical support needs, and their desire for reasonable workload and manageable class enrollments in online classes.