Parental Perceptions and Recommendations of Computing Majors: A Technology Acceptance Model Approach

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2017

Publication Title

Information Systems Education Journal

ISSN

1545-679X

Abstract

Currently, there are more technology related jobs then there are graduates in supply. The need to understand user acceptance of computing degrees is the first step in increasing enrollment in computing fields. Additionally, valid measurement scales for predicting user acceptance of Information Technology degree programs are required. The majority of existing research regarding methods for increasing enrollment focus on subjective measures that are often invalid or invalidated. This research study adapts a well-known, validated and established user acceptance of information technology model (TAM) developed by Davis in 1989. The TAM model was adapted to understand factors for the acceptance of information technology and was based on the long standing Theory of Reasoned Action from behavioral psychology. This work adapts TAM to explore factors that influence parents’ decision to recommend Information Technology as a Major to their children. Since parents have a high degree of influence over the major selection of their children, determining factors for recommending I.T. as a major can assist I.T. programs in improved marketing to increase enrollment. Results revealed parent’s perception of the perceived usefulness of I.T. affected their willingness to recommend I.T. as a major to their children. Additionally, parents were not concerned with how easy I.T. is but, they were concerned with the usefulness of I.T.

Copyright

Copyright © Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals (ISCAP). Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this journal for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial use. All copies must bear this notice and full citation. Permission from the Editor is required to post to servers, redistribute to lists, or utilize in a for-profit or commercial use. Permission requests should be sent to Paul Witman, Editor at editor@isedj.org.

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