Factors that influence the teaching use of Wikipedia in higher education

A key impact the Internet is having on university teaching involves the new choices being provided because of open educational content. W ikipedia is a clear example of these new options. It is a gigantic open repository of knowledge, and it can also be considered a platform that facilitates collaboration in knowledge creation and dissemination. Our research objective is to understand what the main factors are that influence the teaching uses of W ikipedia among university faculty. Based on a technology acceptance model, and using data from a survey sent to all faculty members of the U niversitat O berta de C atalunya, we analyze the relationships within the internal and external constructs of the model. We found that both the perception of colleagues' opinions about W ikipedia and the perceived quality of the information in W ikipedia play a central role. These two constructs have a significant direct impact on the perceived usefulness of W ikipedia. This perceived usefulness affects, mediated by the behavioral intention of using W ikipedia, the effective use behavior of the encyclopedia. The degree to which an individual considers it is important to participate in open collaborative environments and the W eb 2.0 profile of the faculty members also play an important role in our model.