Perceptions of and attitudes towards a course management system at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract

This thesis is about university students' perceptions of and attitudes towards a course management system (CMS) in Hong Kong. CMS has been widely adopted by universities in Hong Kong. Adoption of CMS is a decision made by the university administrators and lecturers. No matter what reasons behind its employment, on rare occasion students are being consulted. Students even have no autonomy in using CMS. Whenever lecturers adopt CMS, students have no alternative but are compelled to use it. Even though many previous research on CMS focused their attentions on the relationship between teaching practice and learning outcome, the way of students in perceiving CMS itself rarely be addressed. Nonetheless, students' perceptions of and attitudes towards CMS are also important as they are related to other educational areas such as learning motivations and learning outcomes. With a view of having a better understanding of the issue, especially within the context of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, this study was thus proposed. Equipping with the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a theoretical framework, this study has adopted a qualitative research approach to understand students' perceptions of and attitudes towards CMS. Through collecting data from 34 semi-structured interviews, this study has discovered that students perceived CMS disconnected from their daily life and developed the attitudes of deploying it as their pawns to achieve their pragmatic goal of acquiring university qualification. In addition, this study has proclaimed that TAM alone is inadequate to offer a comprehensive understanding of students' perceptions of and attitudes towards CMS. Further modification of TAM has been suggested in this dissertation. What is more, this study has called forth educationists that, when integrating educational technology into teaching and learning activities, they should take the context in which students are situating atinto consideration.