A comparison of Saudi and United States faculty use of information and communication technology tools

Аннотация

The purpose of this descriptive and comparative study was to identify Information and Technology Communication (ICT) tools used by Saudi faculty and United States faculty, and to investigate relationships between their perceptions of ICT applications and ICT use. A questionnaire was sent to 292 Saudi faculty from six Saudi universities and 253 US faculty from five universities. The questionnaire gathered information about the use of and attitudes toward ICT applications. Results found that 65% of the United States faculty taught part or all of a course online as compared to only 26% of Saudi faculty. Saudi faculty used Social Media applications significantly more often than US faculty. Saudi faculty also reported using Google Documents, Photos and Website links significantly more often than US faculty while US faculty used podcasts and text documents significantly more often. Results from a path analysis of the relationships between ICT attitudes and actual ICT use based on Davis’ (1993) TAM framework found that for Saudi faculty, system was the only variable significantly related to actual ICT Use.