Relationship of Self-Efficacy to the Stages of Concern in the Adoption of an Innovation in Higher Education

In this research, it was proposed that self-efficacy is the missing underlying psychological factor in innovation diffusion models of higher education. This is based upon research conducted in the fields of innovation-diffusion in higher education, technology adoption, self-efficacy, health and behavioral change. It was theorized that if self-efficacy is related to adoption, it could provide a quick-scoring method for adoption efficiency and effectiveness that would be easy to administer. The innovation-diffusion model used in this study was Hall and Hord's (1987) Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) and it's Seven Stages of Concern (SoC) About an Innovation. The SoC measures a user's perception of"and concerns about"an innovation over time.  The self-efficacies under study were general, teaching, and technology.  The scales used in this research instrument were Chen's New General Self-Efficacy (NGSE), Prieto's College Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (CTSES), and Lichty's Teaching with Technology Self-efficacy scale (MUTEBI), respectively.  This research hoped to uncover a relationship between self-efficacies and a Stage of Concern in the adoption of an instructional technology innovation, Google Apps for Education, at a large university institution.  Over 150 quantitative responses were collected from a pool of 1,713 instructional faculty between late Fall 2012 and early Spring 2013 semesters.  The response group was not representative of the larger population. Forty-six percent represented non-tenure track faculty compared to the expected 19 percent.  Analysis using nominal logistic regression between self-efficacy and Stages of Concern revealed that no statistically significant relationship was found.  Of note is that nearly all participants could be classified as being in the early-stages of an innovation adoption, possibly skewing the overall results.