ICT Supported Learning: A New Institutional Approach

摘要

ICT diffusion at any level of society is offering a great opportunity to promote innovation in teaching and learning. This paper presents the experience of Bocconi's Information Systems department in the field. Bocconi's IS. Department has been an early adopter of any innovative teaching methods and of ICT in its courses both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Since the Spring semester 2000 it adopted Learning Space as pilot environment for one of the Management Information Systems classes (undergraduate level) and some of the executive courses of the Business Schools. After three years of use and having a relatively big research sample (about 300 users) the research team can now sum up some of the most interesting results, which are the focus of this paper. The analysis of the field experience bases on a research model which identifies the variables influencing the adoption and use decision of both students and instructors. Among the most interesting results of the research project it is worthwhile to mention the institutional variables which affect the first adoption decision and the successive decision to continue the use. Institutional variables include tangible factors, such as technical infrastructure or financial incentives, and intangible variables, such as friends' or colleagues' pressure.