The nature of E-learning adoption by stakeholders of a university in Africa

Abstract

Studies looking at the nature of technology adoption from a multi-dimensional perspective have remained below expectation especially in African countries. This study, therefore, sought to explore the nature of e-learning adoption in the University of Ghana using a multi-stakeholder approach. A quantitative survey approach was adopted for this study. The three major categories of stakeholders (students, instructors and e-learning administrators) responded to a questionnaire on the nature of their engagement with the Sakai Learning Management System of the University of Ghana. The data were analysed using the descriptive statistics. The analysis revealed that e-learning was yet to receive a university-wide adoption and again it was discovered that, the prevalent activity on the e-learning platform was “viewing marks and grades.” And some of the activities were less popular with the users of the e-learning system. For instance, “Detecting and fishing out cheating and plagiarism in students’ or researchers’ work” was the least popular activity on the e-learning platform. The originality of the study lies in the multi-faceted (student, lecturers/instructors and e-learning administrators) approach to the study of e-learning adoption in an African country. The study concludes with a discussion of implications and future research directions.