Beyond the early adopters of online instruction: Motivating the reluctant majority Emily Hixon ⁎, Janet Buckenmeyer, Casimir Barczyk, Lori Feldman, Heather Zamojski Purdue University Calumet, 2200 169th St., Hammond, IN 46323, United States abstract article info Available online 8 December 2011 Keywords: Online course development Faculty development Change theory Now that most of the innovators and early adopters of online instruction are comfortably teaching online, many institutions are facing challenges as they prepare the next wave of online instructors. This research study examines how faculty in this “next wave” (the majority of adopters) differ from the innovators and early adopters of online instruction. A specific online course development program is described and the ex- periences of the “majority” in the program are examined in relation to the experiences of previous partici- pants (the innovators and early adopters). © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The most recent report on online learning from the Sloan Consortium indicates that online education is continuing to grow and is central to many institutions' long-term strategic goals (Allen & Seaman, 2010). Such growth will require more faculty members to teach in an online environment. It is reasonable to assume that faculty members who are just now entering the world of online education will be different from those who initially jumped at the opportunity to teach online and have likely been doing so for a decade or more already. Administrators and staff involved with programs to assist faculty with online course development will need to understand how these faculty members are different and consider how they can best accommodate their needs. This study is a helpful step in a line of research designed to inform best practices in bringing the “majority” online. 1.1. Diffusion of innovations and online teaching The Distance Education Mentoring program at a Midwestern university is a cohort-based mentoring program designed to support and assist faculty as they develop an online course (the program is described more thoroughly in Section 2.1). After running the program for four years, almost 100 faculty members have participated in the program. Each year, the staff and faculty mentors involved with the program have noted changes in the characteristics of the faculty participants (discussed further in Section 2.1.1). Looking at Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation theory (2003) may help us understand these changes. Rogers (2003) defines innovation as “an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption” (p. 12). Online education surely fits Rogers' definition of an innovation, as the relatively new format for instruction has gained acceptance and continues to grow within higher education. Rogers is careful to note that perceptions are more important than reality in determining the innovativeness of an idea. Even though many would not consider online education to be “new” any longer, Rogers emphasizes that “if an idea seems new to the individual, it is an innovation” (p. 12). How “an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (Rogers, 2003, p. 5) is what Rogers refers to as diffusion. He claims that individuals go through five stages as they consider the use of an innovation: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. During these five stages, individuals are seeking to reduce uncertainty about an innovation and will thus consider five key attributes of an innovation that impact the rate of adoption. The characteristics of the innovation considered include relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. Rogers argues that innovations which offer improvements over previous ideas, are consistent with needs of adopters, are easy to use, allow for experimentation, and are visible to others will be adopted more quickly. The rate at which individuals adopt an innovation is influenced by not only the characteristics of an innovation as described above, but also by the innovativeness of the individuals. Rogers (2003) defines innovativeness as “the degree to which an individual or other unit of adoption is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than the other members of a system” (p. 22). He identified five categories of adopters (as seen in Fig. 1) and discussed the attributes of each group. The innovators and early adopters make up about 16% of the population and are the first ones to adopt a new innovation. These individuals tend to be younger in age, willing to take risks, more positive about the usefulness of an innovation, very social, and are often viewed as opinion leaders in relation to the new innovation. The early and late majority adopters represent 68% of the population and are typically much slower to adopt a new innovation. These individuals tend to be skeptical of new innovations and do not Internet and Higher Education 15 (2012) 102–107 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 1 219 989 2150; fax: + 1 219 989 3215. E-mail addresses: hixone@purduecal.edu (E. Hixon), buckenme@purduecal.edu (J. Buckenmeyer), barczyk@purduecal.edu (C. Barczyk), feldman@purduecal.edu (L. Feldman), Heather.Zamojski@purduecal.edu (H. Zamojski). 1096-7516/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.11.005 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Internet and Higher Education