چکیده:
Contemporary and emerging technologies have become a normal matter in all aspects of life. These technologies have brought changes to many aspects of our daily activities. Education has also faced major changes and improvements with contemporary innovative advances in the field of technology. The aim of the present research was to examine the current status and the desired prospect of information technology application in the university educational system. In addition, the main factors creating the gap between the current and desired status from the perspective of faculty members and students were examined. The research is of an applied type and the research method was descriptive. The statistical population consisted of faculty members and students of Mazandaran University. Using Morgan's table and through stratified random sampling, 128 faculty members and 400 students were selected. Various tools including questionnaires, observation, interviews, and document analysis were used for data collection. To determine the validity of the questionnaires, the content validity method was used, and to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, the Alpha coefficient (0.80) method was used. Descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (one-sample t-test) were used for quantitative analysis, and the content analysis method was used for qualitative analysis. The results showed that students use information technology to a small extent and faculty members use it to a moderate extent. However, both groups had a very positive attitude toward information technology and assessed their skill in using it as moderate. According to faculty members and students, the desired status includes the serious entry of information technology into the processes of teaching, learning, and educational evaluation, information literacy training, the existence of an online library, and the improvement of infrastructure, especially internet speed. They identified the main challenges toward achieving the desired status as the lack of sufficient skill in faculty members and students in using information technology, existing educational policies, and financial, managerial, infrastructural, and cultural problems.
خلاصه ماشینی:
According to faculty members and students, the desirable status included the serious entry of information technology into the process of teaching, learning, and educational evaluation, information literacy training, the existence of an online library, and improvement of infrastructures, especially internet speed.
They identified the main challenges in achieving the desirable status as the lack of sufficient skill in faculty members and students in using information technology, existing educational policies, and financial, managerial, infrastructural, and cultural problems.
In this regard, in the present research, with the main objective of identifying the current and desired status of information technology application through a blended approach in higher education and its facing challenges from the perspective of faculty members and students, and using various data collection strategies, an attempt has been made to conduct a more distinct and comprehensive research compared to previous studies.
For example, Afshari and colleagues found that four factors play a role in managers' use of computers: high level of computer access, high awareness of information and communication technology features, high level of computer skills, and also, a high level of transformational leadership behavior (Afshari, Fooi & Abu Samah, 2010; Afshari, Abu Bakar, Luan & Teo, Lee, Chai, Wong, 2009) point out that the variable of perceived ease of information technology has a positive and significant effect on the attitude toward using information technology.
The results also showed that, like students, faculty members have a high positive attitude toward the application of information technology in university education.
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