A MODEL FOR TESTING TECHNOSTRESS IN THE ONLINE EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Abstract

Higher education is adopting information technologies to provide students with opportunities for 24/7 educational access. Part of this adoption is driven by perceived student demand to have anytime, anywhere access to educational content. Technology-related stress (technostress) is already common in today's electronic age. Working in the online educational environment adds additional levels to this type of stress. This paper presents an instrument to measure technology related stress for online students. Existing instruments used to measure general technology related stress as well technology related stress in the workplace were consulted for preliminary question development. The questions were tested using a convenience population of students and the results indicate there is a relationship between technostress and student outcomes in the online environment.