Project#3 Reflection &Objectives Addressed

Project#3: Employees’ Intention to Use Online Professional Development

Objectives Addressed: 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6

This paper was submitted for ETR 522 of the Fall 2016 Semester. My project work

included locating appropriate data, creating a research questions related to the data, reviewing

the literature, describing the statistical method(s) to be used, and presenting the results of the

data analysis. Finally, on the last day of the class, we presented our external project as a poster to

the class, and that was an opportunity for me to benefit from exchanging questions and feedback

with my classmates. Above all, this project helped me to improve my skills of data analysis, use

of technology in educational statistics, and describing the results of statistical analyses in

professional language.

The project paper aimed to investigate the extent to which the attitudinal factors

(performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence) predict employees’ behavioral

intention to use online professional development at King Abdullah Medical City in Saudi Arabia.

The project utilizes the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as a

framework to examine (N = 146) Saudi employees’ intention toward using online professional

development. According to Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis (2003), there are three factors

in the UTAUT model that can determine the intention to use technology, namely performance

expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence. Numerous studies showed that the UTAUT

model would explain up to 70% of variance in the users’ acceptance behavior (Venkatesh et al.,

2003; Williams et al., 2009).

 The research question was: ‘to what extent do performance expectancy, effort expectancy,

and social influence predict employees’ behavioral intention to use online professional

development?’ Based on the research question, two hypotheses were developed; i. e. the null

hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis. An updated version of SPSS was used to statistically

analyze the data, multiple regression was used to evaluate how the independent variables can

explain the percentage of variance to predict employees’ intention to use online professional

development. The histogram of the dependent variable showed a normal distribution, which

indicate that the assumption of normality of residuals is been met. However, the Kurtosis is

evident because it is more than 2.58. By looking at the Scatterplot, we can say that the

homoscedasticity assumption has been met and not violated. It showed equal variance

throughout the Scatterplot.

Overall, this study found that employees’ effort expectancy and social influence were

significant factors to predict employees’ intention to use online professional development in the

workplace environment. This study provided suggestions and implications for decision makers

and instructional designers to consider these factors before implementing online professional

development for their employees. We expect that these factors will help in determining the

acceptance level among employees to use online training at Prince Abdullah Medical City.

Future research is recommended to include performance expectancy and facilitating condition to

measure the actual use of online training with a larger sample size.

This project benefited me in my educational research conduct in many ways. For example,

I was working with a partner, and this experience directed my attention to the advantages of

working with others. The project encouraged me to learn detailed information related to
educational statistics, and I was able to learn about more statistical methods of data analyses that

can be used in educational quantitative research.

My experience with this project will also help me in my future educational and research

career. As a result, all the experiences I gained in this project will enhance my ability for

conducting quantitative research studies using methods of data analysis such as t-test, ANOVA,

ANCOVA, correlation, simple, and multiple regression, which I will need for my academic

future as a researcher and a faculty member in Libyan universities. Also, I learned how to extract

information from model summaries, graphs, histograms, and tables. In addition, my experiences

will enhance my skills of teaching research methods to help my future students to become

researchers in educational domains. Moreover, the skills I gained will be so valuable for my

academic position when I go back to my country, where I will be able to utilize my statistical

analysis knowledge in conducting research related to my academic position and to my society.

In conclusion, my gains from this project show evidence that I have satisfied the following

objectives of the MS-ERE program:

• Apply appropriate technology to conduct analysis of educational data

This objective can be captured in the fact that I learned to apply statistical analysis,

comprehend statistical results and describe the results of statistical tests. My participation the

project gave me opportunity to practice using an updated version of SPSS for analyzing the data.

Also, this project achieved the above objective, as it improved my skills of describing statistical

analyses related to SPSS out puts. To meet this objective, I focused on techniques of applying

univariate statistical methods of analysis to the collected data of the project paper.

• Conduct a study pertaining to an educational research problem or phenomenon

 The project paper aimed to investigate the extent to which the attitudinal factors

(performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence) predict employees’ behavioral

intention to use online professional development at King Abdullah Medical City in Saudi Arabia.

Therefore, this objective was met, and conducting this educational study included utilizing the

Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as a framework.

• Design a study of an educational research problem or phenomenon using appropriate

methodologies

A quantitative design is an appropriate methodology for studying online professional

development. As the project aimed to evaluate how the independent variables can explain the

percentage of variance to predict employees’ intention to use online professional development, I

analyzed the data using statistical analysis. The selected research design included using

practicing methods of data analysis such as t-test, ANOVA, correlation, simple, and multiple

regressions. All these practices indicate the achievement of this objective while working with the

chosen quantitative design.

• Demonstrate effective communication skills by presenting and defending a research

project

I was working with a partner, and we presented our external project as a poster to the class.

Demonstrating effective communication skills was met in exchanging questions and feedback

with my classmates. For example, this experience directed my attention toward learning

techniques related to the presentation of educational statistics. I was able to learn more from my

classmates as required by the project accomplishment.

• Select appropriate analyses for a given research question

 To answer the project research question, data analysis was conducted through applying

multiple regression, histogram distributions, normality of residuals, Kurtosis and

homoscedasticity assumptions. Also, my work included extracting information from model

summaries, graphs, histograms, and tables. Obviously, the analyses and extractions I

conducted during the project serve to satisfy this objective, as I selected my analyses

methods depending on the used research question.