The Polytechnic University of the Philippines launched the Students Information System (SIS) for the online enrollment/registration of the students last 2008. This technological innovation is aimed to provide the students ease and better service every start of the semester. It is communicated /disseminated to students who enrolled in the university starting from school year 2008-2009, as what is stated in the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory.
The Diffusion of Innovation TheoryThe Diffusion of Innovation Theory by Rogers E.M. states that an innovation diffuses or spreads through our society in a predictable pattern. A few people will adopt an innovation as soon as they hear of it, other people will take longer to try something new and still others take much longer.The people who are at the back of the PUP website are those we can consider the innovators, and the students as the adopters of the innovation in the enrollment procedures.
The Diffusion Innovation Theory includes the four key steps that effectively summarize the diffusion process wherein the innovation in enrollment procedure is going through. The first step is “Knowledge”, wherein the PUP students are made aware of the new process of enrollment and registration. The next step is “Persuasion” where the diffusion process takes place mostly within the mind of the adopter. The individual weighs the advantages that the new technology would bring to him or her personally.
Based upon these evaluations and discussions with others, the individual begins to learn toward either adoption or rejection of the innovation. This is where the students analyze the advantages and the disadvantages of the new process of enrollment in PUP compared to the traditional. The third step is “Decision”. The individual makes the final decision of whether to adopt or reject.
The last step is “Confirmation” where the individual seeks validation. Whether the decision was to adopt or to reject, the person continues to evaluate the consequences of the decision. If the decision was to reject, new information or economic pressures might compel the person to adopt the innovation.The theory asserts the important characteristics of an innovation.• relative advantage (the degree to which it is perceived to be better than what it supersedes);• compatibility (consistency with existing values, past experiences and needs);• complexity (difficulty of understanding and use);• trialability (the degree to which it can be experimented with on a limited basis);• observability (the visibility of its results).
The SIS database is also experiencing errors according to feedbacks from some of the PUP students. The process in which the innovators and the adopters tend to react in such errors is further explained in Michael Kirton’s “Adaption-Innovation Theory”.Adaption-Innovation TheoryThe theory states that both adaptors and innovators are able to provide quality solutions to organizational dilemmas because style of problem solving is independent of level of creativity, as well as cognitive ability. People are different in cognitive style, in which they are creative, solve problems and make decisions.
These style differences lie on a normally distributed continuum, ranging from high adaption to high innovation. The key to the distinction is that the more adaptive prefer their problems to be associated with more structure and more of this structure to be consensually agreed than do the more innovative. The more innovative are comfortable solving problems with less structure and are less concerned that the structure be consensually agreed than are the more adaptive.PUPians who always encounter SIS failures even referred to as using the traditional way of enrolling which Media Richness Theory explains.Media Richness TheoryMedia richness theory, sometimes referred to as information richness theory is defined by Daft and Lengel as "the ability of information to change understanding within a time interval". Communications that can overcome different frames of reference and clarify ambiguous issues to promote understanding in a timely manner are considered richer.
Communications that take a longer time to convey understanding are less rich. The theory argues that the richness of media differs between media types, with face-to-face communication being richer then communicating via email for example.
