Geertshuis, SSundaram, DLiu, Qian2018-12-192018http://hdl.handle.net/2292/45028To meet the future demands of societies, higher education institutions worldwide are transforming their educational practices, often through the adoption of new learning technologies. However, adoption has proven to be neither simple nor guaranteed, as academics respond to efforts of stimulating change in their practices in different and sometimes unpredictable ways. Using the implementation of a Learning Management system at a New Zealand university as an example, this research aims to better understand the differential adoption of learning technologies by academics when they are exposed to similar learning technologies and work in similar contexts. Taking an adopter-centred stance and drawing on professional identity theories, this research seeks to answer three research questions. First, how does professional identity shape the adoption of learning technologies? Second, how does professional identity vary during the adoption period? Third, how should diverging professional identities be addressed in order to facilitate appropriate adoption? Taking a longitudinal mixed-methods approach, the research consisted of three empirical studies, investigating academics’ adoption of the LMS at different stages. Specifically, the exploratory study collected qualitative data from focus groups, the LMS training evaluations and the researcher’s reflective journals at the initial rollout stage of the LMS implementation.The survey study collected quantitative data from a questionnaire at the transition stage of the LMS implementation. The follow-up study collected qualitative data from semi-structured interviews at the LMS continuance stage. By triangulating data of different types, from different sources and collected at different times, the research identifies and validates a three-aspect model of professional identity pertaining to academics’ responses to the LMS. It shows that these three aspects of professional identities influence academics’ adoption but also are themselves influenced during the adoption process. Such a reciprocal relationship between professional identity and adoption unpacks the rich meaning of adoption by suggesting that adoption cannot be simply viewed as the use of technologies. Instead, it is a process by which academics incorporate the external learning technologies into their professional identities. The research further reveals that in order to facilitate the adoption of learning technologies by academics, universities need to address the professional context and attend to academics' professional identities. Based on these findings, advice for practice and recommendations for future research are provided.Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htmThesisCopyright: The authorhttp://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccessQ111964151