Over the years, The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) has served many researchers in unravelling technology acceptance intentions. What has become a chasm in the literature has been the seeming exclusion of non-linear relationships of UTAUT exogeneous variables (Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence and Facilitating Conditions) in model formation and the overall determination of construct predictive relationships. Secondly, there is a dearth in technology acceptance research in distance-based higher education settings. In an attempt to bridge these gaps, this study adopted the UTAUT model and utilized the Partial Least Squares approach to evaluate a combined linear and non-linear relationships based UTAUT model. The survey design was employed in which a questionnaire was used to obtain data from a sample of 267 respondents (tutors) from a distance-based higher education milieu with a countrywide distribution. Results obtained indicated that non-linear relationships exist between exogeneous factors to better explain constructs' behaviour in the model. A new relationship between facilitating condition and social influence was also discovered. The study thus concluded that in technology acceptance research, there is the need to include non-linear relationships in the UTAUT model to augment the predictive effects and explanations of the constructs' relationships. It further recommended a comparative analysis between a proposed comprehensive UTAUT model with non-linear relationships and moderators to the original UTAUT model for further empirical analysis. This is to compare results in terms of coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and predictive relevance (Q 2 ).
Learning Management System (LMS)-enabled blended learning has been adopted by higher educational institutions for promoting accessible and effective pedagogy and andragogical practices. The introduction of this mode of learning has altered the traditional faceto-face interaction. However, the lack of actual usage and online presence by instructors in an LMS-enabled blended learning environment seems to be a major setback for its success. Consequently, LMS-related anxiety has been cited as one of the behavioural challenges hindering its usage in Africa. Hence, this paper is focused on unravelling the antecedents of tutors' anxiety towards actual LMS usage based on a Technology Related Stimulus-Response Theoretical Framework (TR-SR-TF). In view of this, the study employed a survey design, adopting a questionnaire as data collection instrument from 267 distance education tutors across study centres within Ghana. The results from Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique revealed three underlying factors determining LMS anxiety, namely; colleague influence, outcome expectation and use support. However, the result of the Importance Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) showed that colleague influence was the most important indicator while outcome expectation was the highest performance indicator of tutors' LMS related anxiety. The study recommended that such factors like colleague influence, outcome expectation and use support should be consciously addressed in order to reduce (if not totally eliminate) anxiety towards LMS use for blended learning.
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