Faculty Reflections on the Campus Management System in Distance Education: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

The concept of digital change in higher education has increased the rate of adoption of an integrated information system, which is also referred to as Campus Management system (CMS). Due to prevailing importance of CMS, we conducted this study to explore the experiences of faculty members regarding prospects and challenges of Campus Management System (CMS) in AIOU. Under this, we identified the experiences of faculty members regarding prospects and challenges of CMS. We selected 50% of the program coordinators from all departments of AIOU as sample through purposive sampling technique. Researchers conducted a semi-structured interview to collect data and then thematically analysed the whole data. Major findings of the study were that CMS promises were the auto generation of merit list, safety of data accessibility and security. On the other hand, some of the major concerns and challenges experienced by the members of the faculty were difficulty in data entry, the inability to see someone update the system in real time, inability to be very flexible in decision making, and not being provided with sufficient technical support and training. Such contemplations indicate a mismatch between what the system can provide and what user support can offer. Through the prism of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the results are indicative of the fact that the perceived CMS is quite beneficial, but the lower degree of the perceived ease of use makes the complete adoption a problem. Based on significant findings it is suggested that institutes should arrange training workshops for the faculty, and on modifications to the current policy to promote better usage of CMS in the distance learning model of AIOU.

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