Educators’ Acceptance of Online Platforms for Personal and Professional Development during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With the pandemic, academic activities of education institutes such as teaching, learning, and assessment as well as programmes targeted for educators’ personal and professional development have been transformed to online from physical mode. The use of online platforms has become an essential pedagogical tool. This study investigated educators’ acceptance of online platforms for their personal and professional development during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. One hundred and ninety-nine responses were received for the survey, and data were analysed using statistical methods. The study found the importance of belief structures- attitudinal, normative and control beliefs, and attitude toward the behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control in determining educators’ acceptance of online platforms for their personal and professional development purposes. The findings have important implications for theory and practice on educators’ acceptance of new technologies for teaching and learning purposes.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• technology acceptance
• intention
• personal development
• professional development

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