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Top1. Introduction
Technology has seen a complete overhaul in the last few decades. What was once a luxury has now become a way of human beings’ life (Molnar, 1997). Technology has invaded the very way of people’s lives. It has taken over almost every day-to-day activity of people and has modified the manner people undertake these. Technology in the form of Information Communication Technology (ICT) dominates human life today. ICT is the type of technology that can transmit, process, create, save, show, share, and exchange information by electronic means (UNESCO, 2007). Consequently, cell phones, laptops, email, the Internet and many other forms of communication are termed as ICTs.
Advancement in ICT and its omnipresence has augmented its usage among higher education institutions. The teaching-learning phenomena has seen a drastic enhancement with technology. Dunn and Kennedy (2019) indicated that the usage of Technology Enhanced Learning has seen precipitous increase because of government motivations and to meet students’ anticipations. Technology has become the pivot around which academic administration, teaching, student learning revolves (Wang et al., 2018). ICT has been found to be beneficial in several ways. While Deming et al. (2015) stated that online learning and MOOCs decrease the higher education costs for the learners, Vahedi et al. (2019) concluded that the learners perceive ICT assimilation in the classroom positively. The educational institutes identified the importance of ICT in enhancing the teaching-learning experience (Mirzajani et al., 2016), and in decreasing paperwork (Pattinson, 2017).
While considering the importance of ICT in academic learning, it is equally important to resolve those issues which may increase the level of technostress in students. The implication of e-learning in academic institutes will increase the productivity of the students and academicians both, and it would be a supportive addition to the theory of learning and process of information. Theory of cognitive given by Snow & Lohman (1984) can be extended further in the context of academic learning, where academic institutes as a whole are transforming while introducing ITC based learning in the academic system.
The present pandemic situation has proved that online teaching is not just an option, it has become a necessity (Adedoyin & Soykan, 2020), where sessions including classes, interactions, discussions, team projects, assignments, examinations, have gone online and this has ushered the compulsion of spending more time with technology and digital devices (laptops, mobile phones, desktop etc).
Although there are merits of the use of technology, there has also been a rising awareness to comprehend the negative effect of technology on those using it; and one such negative effect is technostress. Technostress is a contemporary ailment that demonstrates as the failure to adjust, the inability of connecting effectively, and non-healthy reactions to new technologies and their impacts on life (Brillhart, 2004; Gendreau, 2007; Tarafdar et al., 2007; Wang, Shu & Tu 2008).