Factors Influencing Attitudes towards Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Amongst Undergraduates: An Empirical Study Conducted in Kuwait Higher Education Institutions (KHEIs)

Abstract

The increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in higher education has largely been explored in relation to undergraduates’ attitudes to ICT usage at university. However, the success of ICT in any learning institution, including higher education institutions (HEIs), depends on the attitudes of undergraduates to using ICT in their daily learning. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the critical factors impacting on ICT use amongst undergraduates in their learning at Kuwait universities. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was appliedto achieve this study aim. A sample of 717 undergraduates was subsequently selected from both a government (state-funded) and private university in Kuwait. The critical factors examined here include the type of university (government or private), the language (medium) of the learning and ICT support. Mixed methods, namely quantitative and qualitative methods, were implemented for the corresponding data collection. The quantitative results suggested that ‘usefulness’ and ‘ease of use’ of ICT are key dimensions of undergraduates’ attitudes to its utilisation in learning. Another result showed that the factors examined had a direct impact on undergraduates’ attitudes. Moreover, the qualitative results suggested that the