Date
4-2018
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Chair
James Swezey
Keywords
Canvas, Learning Management System, LMS, Technology Acceptance, TPACK, UTAUT
Disciplines
Education
Recommended Citation
Towne, Travis, "Exploring the Phenomenon of Secondary Teachers Integrating the LMS Canvas in a Blended-Learning Course" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 1688.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1688
Abstract
Online learning has become fully ingrained within the educational environment and extensive LMS use in higher education settings is challenging secondary education institutions to keep pace with the growing trend to offer LMS resources to their teachers and students; however, schools that have chosen to implement an LMS face multiple challenges in motivating teachers and students to accept and integrate the new technology into their course curriculum. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate teachers’ experiences integrating the LMS Canvas within a blended-learning course in a rural high school district located in the Southeastern United States. The study integrated the theoretical frameworks of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and draws primarily from a postpositivism framework. The study sought to understand teachers’ motivational and attitude factors for integrating the LMS Canvas into their blended-learning course and involved: distributing a questionnaire for descriptive purposes, conducting individual and focus group interviews, and evaluating course materials. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using NVivo, and coding was utilized to develop an interpretation of the phenomenon. Based on data analysis, four themes developed: (1) motivation and attitude, (2) training and technology support, (3) teaching effectiveness, and (4) student benefits, which along with their related categories, supported the central research question and subsequent sub-research questions. In the final analysis process, in which the essence of the phenomenon is formulated, a central concept for why teachers use Canvas was reduced to adaptability.
