Reducing resistance to instructional technology among health educators

The purpose of this study was to determine the most effective sequencing of instruction for reducing computer anxiety and increasing average hours of computer use per week among health professions instructors. The intervention was designed with two major components: anxiety-reduction and cognitive. One group received an intervention that addressed the affective aspects of computer use prior to the cognitive component. The other group received an intervention that addressed the cognitive component prior to the affective component. Two instruments were used to collect study data: the Teachers' Attitudes Toward Information Technology Questionnaire (TAT) and a postcard with a question about the amount of time spent on computer per week. The TAT is a 198-item questionnaire that usually requires 10 minutes to complete. The instrument includes nine background questions to collect data on participants' length of teaching, self-rating of computer experience, self-report of current and past computer use in the classroom per week, type of computer training received, place of computer training, access to a computer at home, gender, and age. A postcard, used for a three month follow-up, contained a question asking participants to report their weekly average of hours spent on a computer at work.

A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test for differences in computer anxiety and computer usage in the classroom. Pre-workshop anxiety, as measured with the initial TAT was used as a covariate in the final analysis. There were no significant differences between the two treatment groups (AR, CS) on the descriptive variables of age, teaching experience, and computer usage and training. A multivariate analysis of variance was performed on the pooled dependent variables of computer anxiety and hours spent per week on the computer in the classroom at three months post intervention. The multivariate analysis revealed a significant difference between the two groups (AR and CS) on the pooled dependent variable (F [4, 31] = 3.84, p = .045).