Web Enhanced Instruction (WEI) is not intended to replace the traditional classroom setting, but rather to supplement the traditional lecture with course content that can be accessed from campus or the Internet. WEI has the potential to extend the boundaries of traditional classrooms by providing new opportunities for communication and interaction between students and the instructor. While the potential benefits of augmenting the traditional class with WEI have been recognized and discussed, what has remained largely unknown are student reactions to WEI as an addition to the traditional lecture. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been widely used in the Information Systems research to gather user reactions to information systems. The TAM examines users' perceptions of Usage, Usefulness, and Ease of Use. This research applied the TAM to the academic setting to measure student reactions to Blackboard, the WEI tool used in this study. Using several multivariate methods, results suggest that students (n = 692) found that the Blackboard elements which are associated with Course Content (Course Documents, Lectures, Student Tools, Announcements, and Quizzes) are used more often and are seen as more useful than those items that provide Course Support and communication (Discussion Board, External Web Sites, Faculty Information, and E-Mail).

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. earned his PhD from the University of Arkansas. His specialties include communication, motivation, leadership, teambuilding and conflict management.Abstract In this research, the authors examine the relationships between findings from several potentially-related literature streams including a prescriptive body of communication theory involving supervisor-subordinate communication, contingency ideas involving use of coaching/directive vs counselling/participative leader communication styles, and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory from the management literature. LMX suggests that supervisors may afford differing treatment, and thus possibly use different communications tactics, with subordinates in higherquality exchange relationships than with those in lower-quality relationships. This literature, however, leaves unresolved whether supervisors should treat employees differently. In contrast, much of the communication literature has emphasised development of 'best' practices which, presumably, should be used with all employees. In this research the authors consider whether there are consistencies between leader communication practices and the perceived quality of the leader-member exchange. They report evidence that employees perceive differences, especially in the level of participation-related communication, depending upon whether they believe they are in a higher-or lower-quality LMX relationship. Moreover, they find weak evidence for congruence between supervisor and subordinate perceptions of the quality of the exchange and no significant evidence that similarity of the dyad influences the quality of the exchange.variations which may exist in the ways managers communicate with different employees and whether there are differences between subordinates' perceptions of higher-or lower-quality exchanges with their supervisors. The paper begins by investigating whether there are relationships between subordinates' reports of the 'quality' of their relationships with their supervisors and their perceptions about the quality of their communication with the supervisor. Next, the issue of perceptual congruence with the supervisor is considered and it is asked whether supervisors' assessment...

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