Abstract

The aim of this paper is to report the findings on the impact of communication technology as channels on interaction between academic staff and their students, conducted at an Iranian higher learning institution. study focused on media choice and it attempted to determine the communication channels most used by academic staffs in interacting with their students and the reasons they chose these channels. It also intended to find out whether there was a significant relationship between communication channels most used by academic staffs and their perception of media richness. The results revealed that though there is the existence of new communication technologies such as the internet which offers faster and cheaper facilities, Face-to-Face communication is the most used and preferred communication channel by academic staffs in interacting with their students. In addition there was significant relationship between communication channel most used by respondents and their perception of media richness and social presence. That’s why with the higher level of social presence, their level of experience with a channel increases. The findings of this study extend two of the most widely investigated media choice theories: Media Richness Theory (MRT) and Social Presence Theory (SPT).

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