**3. Theories and models of accepting technology and innovation**

With the aim of understanding the factors which influence teachers accepting the e-learning technology, different existing theories and models have been used, and this paper mentions only the ones used frequently in recent studies.

The model of accepting technology has its foundations in the theory of social psychology, developed by Fisbein and Ajzen (1975) as Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) which points out key factors influencing the behavioral intent: attitude toward behavior and subjective norm; if users have the intention of accepting technology, they will do so, but under the strong influence of the environment.

In his Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model, Ajzen (1991) later added the factor of perceived behavioral control to the factors attitude toward behavior and subjective norm, which stems from the self-efficacy theory and is a condition for change in behavior.

One of the first models of accepting technology, and most commonly used in the research is Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Fig. 2) developed by Davis (1989), according to which the user's attitude towards technology is mainly influenced by the following factors: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. According to Davis (1989), perceived usefulness is defined as "the prospective user's subjective probability that using a specific application system will increase his or her job performance", while perceived ease of use is defined as "degree to which the prospective user expects the target system to be free of effort".

Fig. 2. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) developed by Davis (1989).

Factors that Influence Academic Teacher's

usefulness (Renzi, 2008).

**4.2 Attitude and values**

2009).

learning strategy (Shenckenberg, 2008).

developing and applying e-learning competence.

**4.1 Teacher competence (knowledge and skills)**

influence the user's behavior, as well as belief about self-efficacy.

Acceptance of E-Learning Technology in Blended Learning Environment 9

Certain knowledge and skills encourage changes in individual's values and attitudes which

The main prerequisite for the use of e-learning technology is: computer literacy, and the lack of computer knowledge is closely related to computer anxiety and the level of perceived usefulness of e-learning technology (Liu, 2005). Computer literate person is more likely to experiment with new software. Therefore, the level of experience in working with e-learning system (LMS) is the powerful motivator in teacher's adoption of e-learning (Gautreau, 2011). It is well known that after having accepted the e-learning system, it is used on different levels. Renzi (2008) proved the existence of differences in competences between certain groups of teachers. Teachers who create virtual learning environments according to the instructional design principles transform their way of teaching. Knowledge and skills from using the instructional design model, i.e., designing the education scenario, are related to the following factors: formal education, teacher's experience and perceived technology

E-moderating is the key teacher competence influencing the success of the online part of the lessons, and which (according to Salmon (2000)) refers to: knowledge and skills of online moderating and online mentoring. On the organizational level of e-learning, besides the pedagogical and technical dimension of the teacher competence, Shenckenberg (2008) points out the importance of the sociocultural and organizational dimension of the competence profile when adopting e-learning. In this case, sociocultural dimension refers to the teacher's readiness to adopt new knowledge from the field of elearning, as well as communication and sharing of knowledge within certain networks, and the competence profile of academic teachers in organizational dimension includes taking part in deciding about implementation of e-learning at institutional level, working in interdisciplinary teams on solving problems due to the complexity of education using e-learning technology and managing e-learning projects which are a part of university's e-

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

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,

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

TAM model was later updated by its author adding numerous factors, and so have other authors; Venkatesh and Davis (2000) developed TAM2 model in which the TAM model is upgraded with the processes of cognitive influence: job relevance, output quality and result demonstrability, and the processes of social influence: subjective norm, voluntariness and image, which influence the perceived usefulness.

The next important model, very often used in the field of e-learning, was developed by Venkatesh et al. (2003) as Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), according to which the following four factors influence the user's technology acceptance: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. The model emphasizes the importance of four moderators: age, gender, experience and voluntariness of use, as individual differences between users towards technology acceptance.

From the aspect of diffusing new ideas and innovations, according to Rogers (1995), four main elements have a direct influence: innovation, communication channels, time and social system. In Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) Rogers (1995) defined five steps through which the user goes through when deciding about accepting new technology: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. In the phase of persuasion about positive characteristics of the product/service, the user is influenced by: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. According to the decision-making about innovation acceptance, Rogers (1995) groups the users as following: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Rogers Innovation Adoption Curve (Rogers, 1995).

Among early and late adopters (Fig. 3) there are systematic differences in three areas: socioeconomic, personality variables, communication behavior, and other characteristics: previous practice, wants and needs, innovativeness and social norms.

Based on Rogers' theory (1995), Moore and Benbasat (1991) developed a model for measuring user's perception of information technology's characteristics as innovation. The model was applied in the field of adopting information systems, and it consists of the following: relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, ease of use (replacement for: complexity (Rogers, 1995)), visibility and result demonstrability (replacement for: observability (Rogers,1995)), image and voluntariness.
