Faculty Perceptions and Use of Web 2.0 Tools in Saudi Arabian Higher Education

This study investigated factors that predict Saudi Arabian faculty members\u27 intentions to adopt and use Web 2.0 tools and to assess faculty\u27s awareness of the educational benefits of Web 2.0 tools to supplement classroom instructions in higher education. One hundred and three faculty members (34 male and 69 female) from a large university in the Western region of Saudi Arabia participated in the web survey. The framework and model for explaining and predicting the contributing factors towards the decision to adopt and use of Web 2.0 tools was the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (DTPB). The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was utilized to analyze data collected from the web survey. Results indicate that positive attitudes and perceived usefulness are significant predictors of Saudi Arabian faculty members\u27 intentions to use Web 2.0 tools. Moreover, findings indicate that Saudi Arabian faculty members intend to use Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networking in their future classrooms to improve students\u27 learning, student-student interaction, student-faculty interaction, and students\u27 writing ability. Research implications for administrators and higher educational institutions indicate that professional development programs could be designed based on the significant predictors in the DTPB to support a successful integration of Web 2.0 tools in higher education