Assessing User Competence: Conceptualization and Measurement
Authors: Marcolin, Barbara L.; Compeau, Deborah R.; Munro, Malcolm C.; Huff, Sid L.
Journal: Information Systems Research (2000)
DOI: 10.1287/isre.11.1.37.11782
<jats:p> Organizations today face great pressure to maximize the bene its from their investments in information technology (IT). They are challenged not just to use IT, but to use it as effectively as possible. Understanding how to assess the competence of users is critical in maximizing the effectiveness of IT use. Yet the user competence construct is largely absent from prominent technology acceptance and it models, poorly conceptualized, and inconsistently measured. We begin by presenting a conceptual model of the assessment of user competence to organize and clarify the diverse literature regarding what user competence means and the problems of assessment. As an illustrative study, we then report the findings from an experiment involving 66 participants. The experiment was conducted to compare empirically two methods (paper and pencil tests versus self-report questionnaire), across two different types of software, or domains of knowledge (word processing versus spreadsheet packages), and two different conceptualizations of competence (software knowledge versus self-efficacy). The analysis shows statistical significance in all three main effects. How user competence is measured…