Education technology - higher education
F. Shamsi Ashteani; H. Kalantari Dehaghi; M. Nazarzadeh Zare
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Nowadays, the development and deployment of technologies in educational settings seem not to be enough to take advantage of their benefits; rather, this development and deployment require the possession of a series of other skills, such as communication skills. Faculty members, ...
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Background and Objectives: Nowadays, the development and deployment of technologies in educational settings seem not to be enough to take advantage of their benefits; rather, this development and deployment require the possession of a series of other skills, such as communication skills. Faculty members, as one of the determinants of communication in the university environment and as one of the most important pillars for maintaining quality in higher education, need to have the necessary communication skills for teaching, especially in virtual spaces. In addition to having communication skills, the use of ethics in educational settings can also help establish a worthy, constructive, and productive relationship between individuals. Therefore, one of the most fundamental criteria of the higher education system that faculty members are obligated to observe in their profession is professional ethics. In addition to having communication skills and professional ethics in the use of technology, the acceptance of technology by users is also of great importance, as there is always resistance to the acceptance of new technologies. A review of past research regarding the research variables at the domestic and international levels indicates a significant relationship between communication skills and professional ethics in the studies conducted at the domestic and international levels. Accordingly, the main objective of the present study was to investigate the mediating role of technology acceptance in the relationship between communication skills and professional ethics of faculty members in the course of virtual education.Methods: The present research method was a descriptive-correlational study of the structural equation modeling type. The statistical population of the present study included all 288 faculty members of Arak University, of whom 168 were selected using a simple random sampling method based on the Krejcie and Morgan table. In this research, three questionnaires on communication skills, professional ethics, and technology acceptance were used to collect the required data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data in SPSS and PLS software.Findings: The findings of the present study indicated a significant effect of communication skills on professional ethics (0.323), a significant effect of communication skills on technology acceptance (0.334), and a significant effect of technology acceptance on professional ethics (0.257). Additionally, the other findings of the study indicated an indirect and significant effect of communication skills on professional ethics through technology acceptance (0.086). Furthermore, the measurement and model fit indices also indicated the model's desirability.Conclusion: Overall, the results of this research showed that the communication skills of professors in the virtual education environment would play a central and decisive role in improving their professional ethics. These skills had a positive effect on the professional ethics of professors in several ways: 1. the communication skills of professors in the virtual education environment directly improved their ethical behaviors and interactions with students, 2. professors with strong communication skills would be able to apply the principles of professional ethics more effectively in the virtual education process by creating an environment based on trust, respect, and empathy, 3. the communication skills of professors, indirectly and through increasing the acceptance of educational technologies among them, strengthened professional ethics in the virtual education environment, and 4. having strong communication skills, professors would be able to facilitate the process of accepting and using new educational technologies in their work environment. This, in turn, would lead to the improvement of teaching quality, more effective interaction with students, and, as a result, the promotion of professional ethics in the virtual education environment. In general, improving communication skills and facilitating the process of technology acceptance among professors are effective strategies for promoting professional ethics in virtual education. Therefore, paying attention to these components in the design and implementation of professional development programs for professors can play an important role in promoting their professional ethics in the virtual education environment.
Education technology - higher education
F. Bahrami; M. Nazarzadeh Zare
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Institutions usually bring the technologies they need from their surrounding environments into the organization. Therefore, a university as one of the important social institutions, under the influence of the electronic revolution and the emergence of new technologies in its ...
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Background and Objectives: Institutions usually bring the technologies they need from their surrounding environments into the organization. Therefore, a university as one of the important social institutions, under the influence of the electronic revolution and the emergence of new technologies in its surrounding environment, has moved towards the use of multimedia systems and electronic education; however, the use of electronic education, despite countless opportunities, has also brought major problems and challenges, some of which have been mentioned in previous studies, including the lack of face-to-face communication and interaction between the educator and the learner. Hence, the solution offered in e-learning to face this problem is the blended learning approach. Studies have shown that various factors such as educational, environmental, institutional, and organizational factors are effective in applying blended learning, and not paying attention to any of them can cause the failure of this type of teaching and learning. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of institutional factors on the use of blended learning by the faculty members of Malayer University.Methods: The present study was applied research in terms of purpose, cross-sectional in terms of time, and in terms of method of collecting the required data, it adopted a descriptive-correlation design using structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the present study included all the faculty members of Malayer University with the number of 153 people. Due to the limited size of the research community, all faculty members were tested, and finally, 140 faculty members participated in the study with a return rate of 92%. The tools of data collection were questionnaires of institutional factors and blended learning. For data analysis, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean) and inferential (correlation test and path analysis) methods were used in SPSS version 22 and Smart PLS version 6 statistical software.Findings: The findings obtained from the statistical analysis of the data indicated a positive and significant impact of the normative factor with a path coefficient (0.151) on the use of blended learning by the faculty members, and the mimetic factor with a path coefficient (0.413) on the use of blended learning by faculty members, and the coercive factor with a path coefficient (0.362) had an impact on the use of blended learning by faculty members. Also, the measurement and fit indices of the model indicated its appropriateness.Conclusion: Overall, the study showed that institutional factors (normative factors, coercive factors, and mimetic factors) have a great impact on the use of blended learning by faculty members. Hence, considering the following suggestions can help to institutionalize the use of blended learning in the academic context, namely the establishment of regulations and internal laws regarding the use of blended learning in the teaching-learning process at universities, more culturalization in the use of blended learning in the teaching-learning process by faculty members, imitating successful universities and institutions in the field of implementing blended learning, training faculty members on how to apply blended learning in teaching, encouraging more faculty members to use blended learning, and finally considering more educational privileges for the use of blended learning in teaching by faculty members.
Electronic learning- virtual
S. Norollahee; M. Nazarzadeh Zare; M Mousavi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The outbreak of the Coronavirus posed a serious crisis to commercial and educational organizations and institutions. In the face of such a crisis, the transition from face-to-face to virtual education was one of the strategies of educational institutions, especially schools, ...
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Background and Objectives: The outbreak of the Coronavirus posed a serious crisis to commercial and educational organizations and institutions. In the face of such a crisis, the transition from face-to-face to virtual education was one of the strategies of educational institutions, especially schools, and this caused increased additional work pressure on teachers as one of the pioneers of the teaching-learning process. Thus, in the face of such a situation, school leadership plays a very effective role in increasing the efficiency of individuals and reducing the tensions caused by rapid environmental changes. One of the leadership styles that can help school leaders achieve this is to use of an ambidextrous leadership style. Ambidextrous leadership is a new type of leadership style that consists of two different spectrums of leadership behaviors and uses open and closed leadership behaviors in a balanced and complementary way to deal with environmental changes. Ambidextrous leadership is related to increasing organizational agility and performance and means the ability to use both hands with the same power. Ambidextrous leadership can have many effects on self-efficacy, job attitude, etc.; so, the research on the effect of this style of leadership has been considered by many researchers in recent years. Given the lack of research on this style of leadership, especially in educational settings in Iran, the need for doing such a study was felt. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ambidextrous leadership on teachers' job satisfaction and stress in virtual education with the mediating role of psychological empowerment.Methods: To achieve this aim, the researchers used the correlational research method by structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the study included all primary school teachers in Takestan city. Considering the uncertainty of the actual number of teachers, we selected the maximum sample size (335 teachers) by using simple random sampling. Data collection was performed by using the ambidextrous leadership style questionnaire, the psychological empowerment questionnaire, the job satisfaction questionnaire, and the job stress questionnaire. Data analysis was performed by the statistical technique of structural equation modeling (confirmation path analysis) and Pearson correlation test in two statistical software SPSS and AMOS.Findings: The findings of the study indicated the open leadership style on empowerment (0.637) had a significant and positive effect, the closed leadership style on empowerment(0.365) had a significant and positive effect, the empowerment variable on job stress (0.313) had a significant and negative effect, the closed leadership style on job stress (0.314) had a significant and negative effect, the open leadership style on job stress (0.449) had a significant and negative effect, the empowerment variable on job satisfaction (0.224)had a significant and positive, the closed leadership style on job satisfaction(0.350) had a significant and positive, the open leadership style on job satisfaction (0.235) had a significant and positive, also the job stress on job satisfaction (-0.327) had a significant and negative effect. Findings also revealed that the closed and open leadership style had an indirect and significant effect on job stress and job satisfaction through the empowerment variable, and the empowerment variable had an indirect and significant on job satisfaction through the job stress variable. In addition, the measurement and fit indices of the model also indicated the desirability of the model.Conclusion: Overall, the results of the study showed that by using both ambidextrous leadership and empowerment in schools, we can reduce teachers' job stress and subsequently increase their job satisfaction. Therefore, this style of leadership can be used as a useful tool for effective leadership in schools.
