Students acceptance of Tablet Personal Computers

Mark Moran, Asst ProfessorCollege of BIS

Research in progress

This is research that will be reported on in my dissertation for a Ph. D. in e-commerce.

Capella University, Organization Management core program. www.capella.edu

Research Interest

Ubiquitous computing on college campuses.

Tablet teaching technology Security

Notebook Universities

Brown, Ray, (2000), Retrieve from http://itc.vcsu.edu/notebookinitiative/vp.htm?p=492

Tablet Universities

Mayville State University 900 Gateway tablets

Winona State University Replace notebooks with Gateway tablets

in Fall 2004, 8000 students… Florida A&M Law School Virginia Tech college of engineering

1250 students

More tablet initiatives

MIT Purdue Temple University School of medicine Seton Hall University University of Washington Northwester University, Illinois Bentley College

Continued

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

University of Texas at Austin Brown University

Awarded the Microsoft® $1.2 Million to establish a Center for Pen-Centric Computing

Cornell, Notre Dame, University of North Florida & others

Articles about Tablet PC Use in Education:

National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education – Tablet PCs in Educationhttp://www.nitle.org/rsrc_issues_tabletpc.php

Syllabus Magazine – Tablet PCs: The killer app for higher educationhttp://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=6246

University Business – Is the tablet pc the future of college computing?http://www.universitybusiness.com/page.cfm?id=289

Motion Computing - Tablet PCs for Campus Mobilityhttp://www.campus-technology.com/motion/index.asp

Notebook Universities

Research Question

There is a lot of information about mobile PCs and tablet PCs in colleges but no research about if the users accept the technology.

The question – “Do university students accept the table PC?”

Technology Acceptance Research

Theory of Reasoned Action – 1975 Technology Acceptance Model – 1989

Fred Davis’s dissertation Paper

Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of technology (UTAUT) 2003 Verkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis*

Technology Acceptance ModelPerceived Usefulness

Reported

System Usage

Perceived Ease of Use

Computer Experience

Job Title

Gender

Age

Davis, F. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319-340.Davis, F., Bagozzi, R., & Warshaw, P. (1989). User acceptance of computer technology: A comparison of two theoretical models. Management Science, 35(8), 982-1003.

UTAUT Research Model

Acceptance Determinants* Performance Expectancy: the degree to which an individual

believes that using the system will help him/her to attain gains in job performance. (Perceived usefulness)

Effort Expectancy: the degree of ease associated with the use of the system. (Perceived ease of use)

Social Influence: the degree to which an individual perceives that important others believe he or she should use the new system.

Facilitating Condition: the degree to which an individual believes that an organizational and technical infrastructure exists to support use of the system.

*Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)Venkatesh, Viswanath, Morris, Michael G.Davis, Gordon B.Davis, Fred, MIS Quarterly, 2003

Acceptance Model Components

Determinents

• Performance expectancy (usefulness)

• Effort Expectancy (ease of use)

• Social Influence

• Facilitating Conditions

Moderating Variables

• Gender

• Age

•General computer expertise

• Voluntariness

UsageUseBehavior

Decisions

Who to survey. What questions to ask. When to conduct the survey. How to conduct the survey. How to analyze the survey data. Where to publish the research results.

The research team decided to survey freshman students enter DSU during the current academic year.

Why this population?

How large is this population?

Survey Questions

Since this is for a doctoral dissertation it was decided to ask plenty of question to determine the model parameters.

Questions from the older TAM model were included to provide completeness. Useage questions measured students

use of Tablet PCs.

Participant Demographics Gender

Male:143 Female:120

Class placement Freshman:128 Sophomore:68 Junior:49 Senior:18

College major Arts & Sciences 61 Business& Info Sys

122 Education 63 Other 17

First use of computers Elementary 95 Middle 97 High 37 College 33 Don’t Use 1

Tablet PC period of use 1 month 1 2 Months 11 3 Months 33 6 Months 100 9 Months 36 12 Months 8 >12 Months 74

The Device

Gateway M275

14.1”, DVD

1.8 GHz Pentium-M

Today’s Market: New Slates

Sahara i213

12.1”, 1.6GHz Centrino

Motion

Computing

Tatung TTAB

10.4”, 1 GHz ULV

Tatung B12D

12.1” 1.2 GHz Centrino

Fujitsu 5000

10.4/12.1, Indoor/Outdoor

1.1 GHz ULV

NECVersaPro, 10.4”, 1.1 GHz

LE 1600

LS 800

Today’s Market: New Convertibles

Acer

C1xx

C300

C250

Averatec C3500AMD 2200+

12.1”, DVD

Electrovaya1.4 GHz Centrino

12.1”, Biometrics

Scribbler SC-2200

Gateway M275

14.1”, DVD

1.8 GHz Pentium-M

SHARPActius TN10W12.1”, 1.1 GHz

ToshibaM200, 12.1” SXGA+

2 GHz Pentium-M

ViewSonic

12.1”, 1 GHz

Fujitsu

T4000

IBM ThinkPad x41

HP tc4200

Today’s Market: New Hybrids & Ruggeds

HP Compaq TC1100ULV Celeron or Pentium

10.4”, 1.1 GHz

Walkabout Hammerhead

10.4”, 4.5 lbs

933 MHz P-III M

Hybrid Ruggedized

Itronix8.4”, 933 MHz ULV

Xplore iX10410.4” 1.1 GHz ULV

Concept Design: New hinge

Today’s Market: Forecasts Mobile Market Projections (IDC)

Ultra-Portable1 or 2 spindle,10-12” screen, 2-4 lbs.

Ultra-Mobile0 to 1 spindle, 5-8” screen, < 2 0 to 1 spindle, 5-8” screen, < 2

lbs. lbs.

Thin & Light2 spindle, 14-15” screen, 4-7 lbs.2 spindle, 14-15” screen, 4-7 lbs.

Transportable2 & 3 spindle, 14-17” screen, 7-12 lbs.2 & 3 spindle, 14-17” screen, 7-12 lbs.

0%0%

8%8%

30%30%

2004Market share

63%63%

1%1%

17%17%

19%19%

2006Market share

63%63%

3%3%

31%31%

10%10%

2008Market share

56%56%

Consumers, Mobile ProfessionalsCY08 Market: 2.5M, CAGR (04-08): 40%

Mobile Professionals,Information WorkersCY08 Market: 28.4M, CAGR (04-08): 51.4%,

Information Workers,Consumers CY08 Market: 51M, CAGR (04-08): 22%

Information Workers,ConsumersCY08 Market: 8.9M, CAGR (04-08): -11%

The Analysis of Data

Individual model variables are tested to measure their reliabiltiy by using Cronbach alpha.

Cronbach alpha is commonly used in technology acceptance research to determine the index of reliability for a set of questions used to indirectly measure a model construct.

Alpha coefficients range from 0 to 1 The higher the score, the more reliable

the generated data is. Current literature indicates that 0.7 is an acceptable coefficient.

Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika. 16, 297-334.

Nunnaly, J. (1978). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hypotheses

University students accept the Tablet PC. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of

Technology (UTAUT) does predict the successful acceptance of the Tablet PC

The constructs of the UTAUT will demonstrate an effect on user acceptance of the tablet PC.

Computer self efficacy and anxiety does have an impact students acceptance of the Tablet PC.

Students use of the Tablet PC does not impact student’s acceptance of the device.

Survey Tool

Likert scale The survey used a likert scale to determine

the participants agreement with statements that, generally, indirectly measure the UTAUT variables.

1 = strong disagreement to 7 = strong agreement

Some questions are reversed to check if the participants are reading the statements.

University students accept the Tablet PC.

Preliminary results PE statements are strongly in agreement

4.1 to 5.9, average is 5.06 EE statements are stronger in agreement

5.1 to 6.0, average is 5.8 SI statements are strongly in agreement

4.8 to 6.2, average is 5.2 FC statements are strongly in agreement

4.9 to 6.0, average is 5.7

UTAUT does predict the successful acceptance of the Tablet PC Preliminary results

The preliminary results appear to support student acceptance of TPC.

Data will be analyzed with a partial least squares program commonly used in technology acceptance studies.

UTAUT constructs will demonstrate user acceptance of the tablet PC.

Preliminary results support this conclusion.

Computer self efficacy and anxiety have an impact on students acceptance of the Tablet PC

Preliminary results Self efficacy results a strongly in

agreement on TPC use 5.0 to 5.5

Anxiety does not appear to be a factor on this campus Results do not show an effect! 2.4 to 3.5 which means mildly dissagree

to neither.

Usage

Students use of the Tablet PC does not impact student’s acceptance of the device

Preliminary results I use my tablet in slate mode – mildly

agree at 4.96 I use my stylus for navigation - mildly

agree at 4.92 I use my TPC as a notebook –mild

agreement at 5.31 I use windows journal with my TPC - mild

agreement at 5.12

Next things to do Analyze the data using PLS Graph

provided by Wynn Chin, University of Houston.

Defend dissertation in the next couple of months!

Modify survey tool to survey faculty at the universities with TPC programs.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following persons

and groups. Mark Hawkes Omar El-Gayar DSU & the faculty research initiative Tom Farrell & Wayne Pauli for their support and

encouragement. Faculty & students for survey assistance. My Mom & Dad, wife

Capella University, and on, and on, and on…