Abstract:
Learning Management System (LMS)-enabled blended learning has
been adopted by higher educational institutions for promoting
accessible and effective pedagogy and andragogical practices. The
introduction of this mode of learning has altered the traditional faceto-
face interaction. However, the lack of actual usage and online
presence by instructors in an LMS-enabled blended learning environment
seems to be a major setback for its success. Consequently,
LMS-related anxiety has been cited as one of the behavioural challenges
hindering its usage in Africa. Hence, this paper is focused on
unravelling the antecedents of tutors’ anxiety towards actual LMS
usage based on a Technology Related Stimulus-Response Theoretical
Framework (TR-SR-TF). In view of this, the study employed a survey
design, adopting a questionnaire as data collection instrument from
267 distance education tutors across study centres within Ghana. The
results fromPartial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLSSEM)
technique revealed three underlying factors determining LMS
anxiety, namely; colleague influence, outcome expectation and use
support. However, the result of the Importance Performance Map
Analysis (IPMA) showed that colleague influencewas themost important
indicator while outcome expectation was the highest performance
indicator of tutors’ LMS related anxiety. The study
recommended that such factors like colleague influence, outcome
expectation and use support should be consciously addressed in
order to reduce (if not totally eliminate) anxiety towards LMS use
for blended learning.
