Higher education staff experiences of using web-based learning technologies

Given the drive in higher education institutions to employ web-based learning (WBL) technologies in their curricula, this article sets out to address the question of how staff experience the incorporation of such technologies into their educational practice. The study focuses on an initiative involving four institutions in South and West England that aimed to encourage the strategic development of WBL resources in health and welfare professional education programmes. Thirty-three higher educational staff from a range of organisational locations took part in a qualitative process study. The findings suggest that while staff were enthusiastic about their engagement with WBL they experienced problems embedding their project work within their organisations, managing their time and obtaining institutional recognition for their work. Such findings represent a challenge to commentaries that emphasise “technological illiteracy” or “technophobia” amongst staff as barriers to WBL implementation. The study favours an analysis that emphasises how WBL initiatives are incorporated into existing higher education managerial, decision-making and reward structures.