The Perception of Ely's Conditions for Technology Implementation within Community Colleges

Change is a concept that has been studied for generations and continues to evolve in the literature. An area of change is diffusion of innovation which examines how new technologies or innovations are spread throughout a population. Using Ely's (1990) eight conditions that facilitate the implementation of educational technologies, this study was conducted to measure the influence of those conditions for the implementation of technologies in community college environments. Within this study, 634 participants from 18 community colleges across Virginia were surveyed and identified the conditions they perceived to be most influential in regards to their decisions to implement a specific technology. The perceived influence of Ely's eight conditions was analyzed for differences between various technologies, as well as within various demographic groups. The findings of this study identify those conditions with highly perceived influences which may lead practitioners to ensure the more influential conditions are in place prior to future technology implementations with the goal of more successful implementations.