**4.2 Attitude and values**

In the process of accepting innovation in teaching, teacher's belief about the usefulness of the innovation plays one of the main roles and it encourages changes in the curricula (Colorado & Eberle, 2009). Teacher's attitude and values are important motivational factor in developing and applying e-learning competence.

There have been many researches about teacher's attitude towards e-learning technology: positive (confirmation) or negative (anxiety) (Mihhailova, 2006). Less researches are oriented towards beliefs which form certain values and attitudes (Agarwal, 2000). Researches have shown that users' behavior is influenced by different beliefs or e-learning technology attributes, and according to Moore and Benbast (1991) they are: relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, ease of use, result demonstrability, observability. Most frequently confirmed attributes are: ease of use and usefulness (Gibson et al., 2008; Renzi, 2008; Keller, 2009).

Ozkan and Findik (2010) confirm the importance of the e-learning technology compatibility attribute in relation to the differences in certain academic departments, where the difference has been confirmed. Kundu et al. (2010) confirm the importance of compatibility attribute

Factors that Influence Academic Teacher's

2007).

acceptance of e-learning technology (Baia, 2009).

**4.4 Characteristics of students and the field of study**

graduated have a higher level of self-regulated learning.

(Ø. Sørebø & A. M. Sørebø, 2008).

**4.5 Acquiring knowledge and skills** 

characteristics of the students, which both represent situational factors.

Acceptance of E-Learning Technology in Blended Learning Environment 11

experience influence the commitment to the pedagogical quality which influences

While creating virtual learning environment the choice of e-learning technology depends on pedagogical model, and its choice is influenced by: field of study characteristics and

Kanuka (2006) stresses out the importance of the following factors: value and culture within certain discipline, understanding unique problems within each field of study as crucial elements when designing learning environment. Keller (2009) proved that the culture within the discipline represents the obstacle of e-learning application. Before using the virtual learning environment, reasons for the use of e-learning technology need to be defined, where, according to Rebman Jr et al. (2004), certain physical educational activities require classical approach in a traditional classroom. Knowledge is hierarchically organized and therefore it is essential to define learning outcomes within each course using knowledge taxonomy, and based on the outcomes define educational strategies and student activities (Donnelly, 2005). Numerous models of instructional design can be found in literature, however, Donnelly (2005) emphasizes that teachers mostly use non-systemized personal models because the planning of the educational structure requires: time, commitment and careful systematic approach. One characteristic of the study object (any segment of the digital study material) is: multiple use in different educational contexts; however, Parrish (2007) brings up the problem of intellectual property which limits the distribution of the study objects. Learning happens in predictable patterns that can me modeled using algorithms, which influences the development of the intelligent tutoring systems (Parrish,

Student characteristics can act as motivators for application and development of e-learning in teaching, and student capabilities (Osika et al., 2009) can be an obstacle in using elearning technology in teaching. Each student has his or her own learning style and there are various instruments that can measure those styles (Grasha, 1994). A very important student characteristic is motivation; a motivated student shows greater interest in information, the quality of information, confidence when accessing information and technology, satisfaction in work (Kumarawadu, 2011). Colorado and Eberle (2009) conclude that the level of student self-regulated learning is related to demographic data: gender, status, certify cates, completed degree of education and characteristics of the self-regulated learning: learning strategy, critical thinking, knowledge sharing, asking for help, where students who have

On the other hand, the number of students in virtual classrooms and complexity of education scenario influence the success of virtual learning process (Salmon, 2000). Perception of student characteristics can be a part of the construct: facilitating circumstances

The lack of knowledge about e-learning technology and the lack of skills influence the successful integration of e-learning in higher education institutions. New knowledge and skills, together with experience, encourage the change in existing value system, and finally they become attitudes influencing the teacher's behavior in the education process. On the

through the following obstacles in accepting e-learning technology: integration with other systems in organization, incompatibility in technology use and existing work practice, the problem of integrating technology and existing practice in traditional classrooms. Moscinska and Rutkowski (2011) confirm the attributes: flexibility and "user-friendly" which influence the acceptance and use of e-learning systems, and present technical characteristics of the elearning system.

It is well known that different beliefs about the value of e-learning encourage teachers to apply e-learning technology on different levels (Renzi, 2008). The perception of e-learning usefulness is formed under the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and numerous authors list: belief in institution's competitiveness, increased number of enrolled students (Osika et al., 2009), facilitated student cooperation in educational context (Lofstrom & Nevgi, 2008), communication and additional support for students, distribution of study material, the ease of administration, the value of collaborative online work (Keller, 2009), belief in information sharing, automated activities of the learning process, value of social learning as an important part of learning in general (Renzi, 2008). Successful pedagogical use of e-learning technology depends on teacher's attitude towards technology Mihhailova, 2006). Research results show that teacher's attitude has been studied more from the technical and less from the pedagogical aspect (Mahdizadeh et al., 2008).
