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

8 E-Learning – Organizational Infrastructure and Tools for Specific Areas

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

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

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

Among early and late adopters (Fig. 3) there are systematic differences in three areas: socioeconomic, personality variables, communication behavior, and other characteristics:

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:

What follows are the factors connected to the academic teacher's acceptance of e-technology,

**4. Factors that influence academic teacher's acceptance of e-learning** 

image, which influence the perceived usefulness.

adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards (Fig. 3).

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

observability (Rogers,1995)), image and voluntariness.

previous practice, wants and needs, innovativeness and social norms.

acceptance.

**technology**

grouped in several categories.

Certain knowledge and skills encourage changes in individual's values and attitudes which influence the user's behavior, as well as belief about self-efficacy.

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 usefulness (Renzi, 2008).

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 elearning strategy (Shenckenberg, 2008).
