Technological acceptance and Its Impact on the linkage between communication ‎skills and the professional ethics of faculty members in virtual education

Shamsi Ashteani, F.; Kalantari Dehaghi, H.; Nazarzadeh Zare, M.

doi:10.22061/tej.2025.10988.3084

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

¹ COPYRIGHTS Department of Educational Sciences,‎‏ ‏Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran

² Department of Educational Sciences,‎‏ ‏Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22061/tej.2025.10988.3084

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, 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.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Education technology - higher education

COPYRIGHTS
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

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