Abstract
The extent to which university students can use digital resources is a fundamental problem given the prevalence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in business and in our lives more generally. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are under pressure to incorporate such technologies into their teaching and learning due to the rapid increase in the use of ICT tools in all aspects of life today. Whilst the integration of ICT tools in Higher Education (HE) is important, there is limited ICT infrastructure in some educational institutions across South Africa. The integration of such instructional applications is still limited in South African higher education institutions, despite these changes calling for their acceptance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of students on the use of ICT tools, their integration, and their perceived influence on grades.
Primary data was drawn from a sample of 217 students that were registered for a second-year accounting module. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that students perceived ICT tools as having a positive impact on their grades. Further results revealed strong, positive, and significant relations between Information and Communication Technology Integration (ICTI) and the Ease of Use (EoU), as well as between EoU and the Perceived Influence on Grades (PIG). This signifies the importance of incorporating new technological tools into the teaching-learning processes on learner’s academic performance.
These findings contribute to an understanding of theories surrounding the adoption of technology in education, such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The results show that student opinions of various ICT tools and their effects on teaching and learning, as well as their grades, differ from what is often believed about technology adoption models. This has broader implications on strategies that must be adopted by lecturers, university authorities, and policy makers to ensure effective integration of ICT tools in teaching and learning.