| This study examined faculty attitudes toward a blended learning environment which includes traditional face to face interaction as well as an Internet component. A total of 107 university faculty members in various degree programs completed the Faculty Attitudes Towards Technology-based Distance Education survey on blended learning. Of these, 57 (53.3%) were female while 50 (46.7%) were male. The most common age group was 31 to 40 years old (n = 39, 36.4%). Using Mezirow's Transformational Learning Theory (1997), the following research questions guided this study: (a) How do faculty gender, age, and education relate to faculty attitudes toward a blended learning environment? and (b) How do teaching experience, educational technology preferences, and personal incentives relate to faculty attitudes toward a blended learning environment?;Educational technology preferences (beta = .61, p < .01) and gender (beta = -.22, p < .05) were the best predictors of attitudes toward a blended learning environment. Faculty with more positive perceptions of educational technology, and women, tended to have positive attitudes toward a blended learning environment. The qualitative results confirmed the quantitative results in that faculty with more positive attitudes toward a blended learning environment also tended to have a positive perception of educational technology, and pay/monetary rewards and work recognition were important incentives while time requirement was an obstacle. Recommendations for future research include replication studies, more detailed qualitative analyses, and longitudinal studies. School administrators and teachers should find the results of this study useful in recruiting and training teachers for blended courses because the relationships between educational technology, personal incentives, and attitudes have been clarified. The study variables related to the points of view concept from Transformational Learning Theory (i.e. educational technology preferences and personal incentives) were supported as predictors of attitudes toward a blended learning environment. |
