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Dissertation Defense Conference Call

Mark Moran

Doctoral Candidate

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Dissertation Title

College Student’s Acceptance

of

Tablet Personal Computerss

a Modification of the

Unified Theory of Acceptance

and Use of Technology Model

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Agenda• Why the Unified Theory of Acceptance

and Use of Technology (UTAUT) Model.

• The Survey Tool.

• Hypotheses.– Changes

• Data Sample

• PLS Model

• Discussion & Conclusions

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Sample

• 263 valid responses were captured in the survey database.

• Basic statistics for the data is summarized below for the significant groups.

Class Status:

127 freshman, 66 sophomore, 49 juniors, 16 seniors

• First Computer Use:96 in elementary, 97 in

middle school, 37 in high school, 33 in college.

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Graphical Representation

Class Status

Freshman48%

Sophomore25%

Junior19%

Senior6%

None2%

First Computer Use

Elementary36%

Middle37%

High School14%

College13%

Length of Tablet PC Use

Three mo13%

Six mo38%

Nine mo18%

12 mo3%

> 12 mo28%

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Significant Data Findings

• There were statistically significant difference found in two population groups.

• The participants who classified themselves as freshman had significant difference with the other classifications.

• There were also significant differences based on first computer use among participants.

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T-test & p-value resultsfor grade declaration

Comparison Groups T-stat p-value

---------------------------------------------------------------

Freshman vs. sophomore 1.67 0.04

Freshman vs. junior 1.45 0.07

Freshman vs. senior 1.59 0.06

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T-test & p-value resultsfor first computer use declaration

Comparison Groups T-stat p-value

---------------------------------------------------------------

Elementary vs. college 1.79 0.05

Middle School vs. high school 1.47 0.07

Middle School vs. college 1.84 0.04

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Agenda• Why the Unified Theory of Acceptance

and Use of Technology (UTAUT) Model.

• The Survey Tool.

• Hypotheses.– Changes

• Data Sample

• PLS Model

• Discussion & Conclusions

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PLS-Graph of Dissertation Model

• The next three slides show the PLS-Graph analysis of all the participants.

– Just the declared freshman participants.

– Just the junior & senior participants.

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All participants

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Explanation

• The numbers in the middle of the arrows represent the contribution of each independent construct to the dependent constructs.

• The number below the dependent constructs is the percent of variation of that construct explained by the model.

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Freshman only (N = 127)

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Juniors & Senior Participants

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PLS Findings

Behavioral Use

Model Intent Behavior Total

_______________________________________

All 55% 11% 66%

Freshman 63% 22% 85%

Upper Class 49% 7% 56%

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Agenda• Why the Unified Theory of Acceptance

and Use of Technology (UTAUT) Model.

• The Survey Tool.

• Hypotheses.

• Data Sample

• PLS Model

• Discussion & Conclusions

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Discussion

• The dissertation model supports five of the six hypotheses as discussed in the slides to follow.

• This whole process has been extremely rewarding as it opened a new world of behavioral research for this researcher.

• Although this is a very narrow topic the area has many problems to analyze.

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• This experience has opened the area of web based survey that will be highly valuable for future research.

• The statistically analysis and PLS-Graph knowledge gained will benefit both the student and his research in the future.

• The process has changed the way the research thinks about addressing a problem.

• The learning experience is about the journey not the destination.

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University students, in this environment, accept the tablet PC. • All participant groups have positive

behavioral intent and use behavior and most construct have a positive contribution to the dependent variables.

Group Behavioral Intent Use behavior-----------------------------------------------------------All 55% 11%Freshman 63% 22%Upper Class 49% 7%

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The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) does predict the successful

acceptance of the Tablet PC.

• All constructs used in UTAUT have a positive correlation to behavioral intent.

• Anxiety (- 7%) is not part of UTAUT it was added to this study to support investigative vigor with attitude toward using technology (47%) and self efficacy (12%).

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The constructs of the UTAUT will demonstrate an effect on user acceptance of the Tablet PC.

• Supported by the same data as the previous alternative hypothesis.

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Computer self efficacy does have an impact students acceptance of the Tablet PC.

• The dissertation model re-introduced this construct and found that in the research environment this variable does impact acceptance.

Group Self Efficacy Contribution-----------------------------------------------------------All 12%Freshman 10%Upper Class minus 2%

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• The contribution of self efficacy will be studied more in depth in subsequent research with a K12 one-on-one study that will be conducted in South Dakota with 30 pilot schools.

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Anxiety about computer use does have an impact on student’s acceptance of the Tablet PC.

• The negative contribution of anxiety indicate that there is not a contribution to the dependent construct behavioral intent.

• Contribution is -7% for the whole population and -12% for both the freshman and upper class groups.

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Students’ use of the Tablet PC does impact student’s acceptance of the device.

• Initially I thought that the positive outcome of the dissertation model indicated support for this statement, but after learning more about the PLS-Graph tool I learned that you could reverse the arrow of effect and when I did that for use behavior I found that it did not have a positive contribution to behavioral intent.

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The influence of use behavior

• Reversal of the link between the two dependent constructs indicated in the dissertation model that use does not contribute to behavioral intent.

• The freshman and upper classmen model does indicate a contribution at 7 & 16 percent respectively.– This phenomena should be further studied.

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Future Research

• The research for this dissertation has opened my perceptions of all the possible applications of adoption research.

• There are many opportunities to pursue this type of behavioral research and grant opportunities should be available.– Initially I will be collaborating with Dr. Hawkes on the

K12 project in South Dakota and publishing the dissertation results with Dr. El-Gayar at the DSI meeting in San Antonio this fall.

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• With the time now, and knowledge, now available to me I will be pursuing grant opportunities and plan to be active in publishing the findings of my research in the next three years.

• The K12 study with have two data samples, one before the pilot study begins and a follow-up survey after one year of use in the K12 pilot of thirty schools. Approximately 250 teachers will be involved and we hope for more than 50% participation in the survey.

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Concluding remarks

• During the dissertation process I have learned much more than I thought I might.

• Technology acceptance is fundamentally about about two features of technology; ease of use and usefulness. Initially they seem the same but they are not!

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• Ease of use is an interface issue and can be changed pretty easily.

• Usefulness is based on company requirements and is very hard to change once a project gets to the users.

• The perception of these characteristics can make or break a project.

• Measurement of these before project implementation can alert the organization to possible problems that can be averted.

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• These are multistable preceptions users can rarely recognize both but project success requires both so management needs to be aware before it is too late!

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