The impact of eLearning on health professional educators’ attitudes to information and communication technology

Figures & data

Table 1 Participant demographics (n=52)

Age, n (%)
Less than 35 years	33 (63.5)
35 years and older	19 (36.5)
Female, n (%)	40 (76.9)
Health profession, n (%)
Medical doctor	8 (15.4)
Registered nurse	24 (46.2)
Allied health*	20 (38.5)
Workplace, n (%)
Public hospital	36 (69.2)
Nonpublic settings	12 (23.1)
University	4 (7.7)

Note:

* Allied health profession comprises medical radiation practitioner, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, and speech therapist.

Table 2 The internal consistency of Information Technology Attitude Scales for Health subscales of efficiency of care (A); education, training, and development (B); and the control scale (C)

Scale	Item	Cronbach’s alpha
A	1. Using ICT in health professional education would improve student learning.	0.8
	2. The sort of information I can get from ICT helps me give better support to learners.
	3. Using ICT makes my communication with other health professionals faster.
	4. I worry that the use of ICT in health professional education may undermine learner confidentiality.
	5. I believe that ICT can help us deliver individualized learning support.
	6. Using ICT would make my communication with other health professionals less reliable.
	7. The cost of the system would be better used to employ more staff.
	8. The time I spend with learners would reduce because of the time I would spend using ICT.
	9. I think we are in danger of letting ICT take over.
	10. ICT helps to improve the way health professional education is delivered.
	11. The speed with which I can access information using ICT helps me give better support to learners.
	12. Time spent on ICT is out of proportion to its benefits.
	13. Use of ICT in health professional education would be more of a hindrance than a help to teaching and learning.
	14. I feel there are too many ICT devices around now.
	15. Using ICT would make health professional educators less productive.
	16. Using ICT is more trouble than it’s worth.
B	1. I think that I would have all the ICT skills I need for my educator job when I finish university.	0.7
	2. It isn’t worthwhile for health care professionals to acquire ICT skills.
	3. I can usually get help quickly when I need some advice about using ICT.
	4. I would like to know more about ICT in health professional education.
	5. I can’t think of any benefits associated with using ICT in health professional education.
	6. Using computers helps to increase the health professional educator’s knowledge base.
	7. The computer training I have received has helped me to be an efficient health professional educator.
	8. I would like to have ongoing training to help me improve my ICT skills.
	9. ICT skills are becoming more and more necessary for health professional educators.
	10. I feel I need more training to use ICT properly.
	11. In order to be successful in my career I need to be able to work with ICT.
	12. I can usually get help quickly when I have an ICT problem.
	13. I am easily able to learn new ICT skills.
	14. The ICT training I have received has helped me to use ICT efficiently.
C	1. I lack confidence in my ICT skills in a health professional education environment.	0.8
	2. I generally feel confident working with ICT.
	3. ICT makes me feel stupid.
	4. I’m often unsure what to do when using ICT.
	5. I would only attend ICT training if I had to.
	6. I sometimes feel very intimidated by the thought of using ICT.

Abbreviation: ICT, information and communication technology.

Figure 1 The percentage of participants with different information and communication technology devices.

Table 3 The change in Information Technology Attitude Scales for Health subscales and self-reported overall confidence scores during the online subject

Variable	Mean difference (95% CI)	Paired t-test
ITASH subscale A post – pre	−0.69 (−1.81 to 0.44)	t=−1.23, df =44, P=0.224
ITASH subscale B post – pre	−0.38 (−1.45 to 0.70)	t=−0.71, df =44, P=0.482
ITASH subscale C post – pre	−0.96 (−1.55 to −0.36)	t=−3.22, df =44, P=0.002*
Confidence post – pre	0.50 (0.08 to 0.92)	t=2.40, df =45, P=0.020*

Notes: Subscale A, efficiency of care; subscale B, education, training, and development; and subscale C, control.

* Represents significant difference.

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; ITASH, Information Technology Attitude Scales for Health.

Table 4 Correlations between the amount of time spent engaged with ICT devices and Information Technology Attitude Scales for Health subscales and self-reported overall confidence at baseline

	Baseline ITASH subscale A	Baseline ITASH subscale B	Baseline ITASH subscale C	Self-reported overall confidence
Amount of time spent engaged with ICT devices
r	−0.184	−0.165	−0.415	0.451
P-value	0.193	0.243	0.002*	0.001*
n	52	52	52	52

Notes: Subscale A, efficiency of care; subscale B, education, training, and development; and subscale C, control.

* Represents significant difference.

Abbreviations: ICT, information and communication technology; ITASH, Information Technology Attitude Scales for Health.