The Contribution of the Technology Acceptance Model for an Active Teaching and Learning Process in Higher Education: A Bibliometric Analysis

Introduction

In today’s society, one of the Higher Education Institutions priorities is to form professional citizens sustained with values and competences that makes them able to face and overcome the real-world challenges, and with it, learning to learn throughout life. In this context, it is increasingly important to engage and keep students’ proactive in their learning process, fostering their learning behaviour and creating meaningful learning activities.

In a scenario where the dependence on digital technology is increasing in society, and that is also reflected in education, defining the key-factors that influence students’ digital technology usage is now crucial (Raza, Umer, Qazi, & Makhdoom, 2018; Tarhini, Hone, Liu, & Tarhini, 2017). Digital literacy has become the designated aim of education in order to make students digitally literate citizens who can cope with the complexities and dynamics in the digital era (Fraillon, Ainley, Schulz, Friedman, & Gebhardt, 2014).

Some authors report that studies made about teaching practices that involve digital environments in higher education are a trend for increasing the effectiveness of students’ education (Stanley, 2013), as many of them are seeking for active teaching and learning strategies that will transform students from passive into active participants of the learning process in the digital era (Eastman, Iyer, & Eastman, 2011; Poellhuber, St-laurent, & Roy, 2018).

It's noticeable that students can use digital technologies in a way that can enhance their learning experience and new requirements to deal with digital learners’ profile were imposed (Kiryakova, Angelova, & Yordanova, 2018). The digital learners profile is sometimes perceived for being constantly online, for constant interactions, for making fast decisions and for using different media (Gurung & Rutledge, 2014; Ossiannilsson, 2018). Some authors point out how these digital learners prefer a digital learning environment, and how they positively cope with the growing use of mobile devices and social media networks for academic purposes, but also their need for constant and instantaneous feedback on their learning process (Hanif, Jamal, & Imran, 2018). However, digital learners may lack some essential academic skills related to technology as their learning engagement with digital technologies sometimes is limited, sporadic and often limited to basic usage, such as gaming, texting and social networking, with less involvement in producing and sharing of self-created content, being, mostly, ordinary and basic digital users (Livingstone, 2009; Luckin et al., 2009). This lack of ability to use emerging digital technologies in a way that can create meaningful and active learning experiences for academic purposes can and should be triggered as a focus of an effective use of technology in the learning process. Nowadays, understanding the evolution and the contexts where digital technology is being applied is extremely relevant, specially, when it simultaneously contributes to a more active, involved, or even fun teaching and learning process. Also, as Chisholm (2013) stated “the configuration of digital learning worlds is based on mixed – blended – modalities of acquisition, transmission, participation and engagement.” (p. 70). To successful combine the relation between these four modalities it is required to have an active teaching and learning approach. These mixed modalities will develop and reinforce learners’ skills such as: critical reflection, autonomy, empowering and independence while learning to learn throughout life.