An Investigation of Faculty members’ Beliefs and Barriers to Successful ICT Integration into Teaching at Sultan Qaboos University

Volume 16 Issue 2 July - September 2019

Research Paper

An Investigation of Faculty members’ Beliefs and Barriers to Successful ICT Integration into Teaching at Sultan Qaboos University

Abdelrahman Mohammed Ahmed*, Ahmed Yousif Abdelraheem **, Zainab Asaid Al-Shedani ***, Mohammed Sulaiman Al Aghbari****

*-**** Department of Instructional and learning Technologies, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), Muscat, Oman.

Ahmed, A. M., Abdelraheem, A. Y., Al-Shedani, Z. A., & Al-Aghbari, M. S. (2019). An Investigation of Faculty Members’ Beliefs and Barriers to Successful ICT Integration into Teaching at Sultan Qaboos University. i-manager’s Journal of Educational Technology, 16(2), 50-61. https://doi.org/10.26634/jet.16.2.16240

Abstract

There are many essential factors affecting the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into teaching and faculty learning, including faculty members' beliefs regarding ICT integration. The present study examines the beliefs of (N= 220) faculty members from eight different colleges at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman. A quantitative-qualitative design was used in this study, including an open-ended questionnaire asking teachers about their beliefs about integrating ICT into teaching and the barriers impeding ICT use in education. The findings show that the faculty members at SQU held positive beliefs regarding using ICT elements as tools for teaching and learning. However, this does not necessarily mean that they currently integrate ICT into their teaching processes. The results also showed that the faculty members perceived a moderate degree of barriers that were preventing them from integrating ICT in the classroom. No significant differences were found among the variables of gender and the year of experience. The ANOVA test indicated that there were no significant differences among the four academic ranks: lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor and professor on their beliefs on barriers to ICT integration. This result could be hypothetically attributed to the fact that SQU provides learning resources for all faculty members, including software, hardware, internet connectivity, training and administrative, and technical support.