Abstract:
Distance education has evolved partly through technologies that defined them in
the various generations of distance education delivery. However, in the twenty-first
century, the use of Learning Management System (LMS) has changed the face of
distance education delivery. Even the traditional face-to-face based distance
education mode is now adopting the LMS as a mediating technology between
instructors and students. However, in the usage of LMS-enabled blended learning,
several factors have been cited in the literature as enablers towards actual usage of
LMS technology. Factors such as facilitating conditions, voluntariness of use and
actual use behaviour have been important in contemporary literature. Despite their
importance, the chasm in the literature is the nuances existing in terms of
relationships between these three factors. This study fills the gap by defining a
model based on the three factors to provide an in depth empirical study on their
relationships and how they influence LMS-enabled blended learning uptake of
distance education by tutors. The study thus employs a cross country survey to
collect data from 267 tutors and offer analysis by way of a Partial Least Squares
Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The study revealed important
relationships among facilitating conditions, voluntariness of use and use behaviour of
LMS-enabled blended learning such that facilitating conditions predicted
voluntariness of use and actual use behaviour; voluntariness of use determined
actual LMS use behaviour for blended learning in distance education. The study
finally provided recommendations based on the findings for policy and practice of
LMS-enabled blended learning in distance education
