Looking under the Bonnet: Factors Affecting Student Adoption of E-Learning Systems in Jordan

Abstract

The primary questions addressed in this paper are the following: what are the factors that affect students" adoption of an e-learning system and what are the relationships among these factors?This paper investigates and identifies some of the major factors affecting students" adoption of an e-learning system in a university in Jordan. E-learning adoption is approached from the information systems acceptance point of view. This suggests that a prior condition for learning effectively using e-learning systems is that students must actually use them. Thus, a greater knowledge of the factors that affect IT adoption and their interrelationships is a pre-cursor to a better understanding of student acceptance of e-learning systems. In turn, this will help and guide those who develop, implement, and deliver e-learning systems.In this study, an extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was developed to investigate the underlying factors that influence students" decisions to use an e-learning system. The TAM was populated using data gathered from a survey of 486 undergraduate students, who were using the Moodle based e-learning system at the Arab Open University. The model was estimated using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). A path model was developed to analyze the relationships between the factors to explain students" adoption of the e-learning system. Whilst findings support existing literature about prior experience affecting perceptions, they also point to surprising group effects, which may merit future exploration.

Understanding intention to use mobile learning: a perspective of the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology

“…The concept of self-efficacy can be defined as a person's perception of their ability to perform particular behaviors such as the capacity to undertake successfully certain tasks (Abbad et al, 2009). Indeed prior research in relation to computer self-efficacy has indicated computer self-efficacy plays a crucial role in understanding an individual's information and communication technology acceptance (e.g.…”

Aceptación y uso de los sistemas e-learning por estudiantes de Grado de Ecuador: El caso de una universidad estatal

“…Se incluyó este constructo en la investigación considerando que el aspecto que evalúa, coincide con el comportamiento latinoamericano y en especial de Ecuador. Estudios previos antes analizaron este factor como importante (Abbad, Morris & de Nahlik, 2009;Chou & Tseng, 2011;Udzlmd, Bachtiar, Rachmadi & Pradana, 2014).…”

“…La disponibilidad de apoyo técnico es uno de los factores importantes en la determinación de la aceptación de la tecnología para la enseñanza (Abbad et al, 2009), especialmente en la etapa de inicio de la adopción de la tecnología. Lo expuesto coincide con los resultados de varios estudios (AlQudah Ahmed, 2014;Arteaga & Duarte, 2010;Ngai, Poon & Chan, 2007;Ramirez-Anormaliza, Sabaté & Guevara-Viejo, 2015).…”

“…Se considera que un estudiante que tiene un fuerte sentido de su capacidad para hacer frente a este tipo de sistemas, puede tener una percepción muy positiva de su facilidad de uso y la utilidad. Por lo tanto es probable que esté más dispuesto a aceptar y utilizar la herramienta (Abbad et al, 2009 …”

“…Este resultado es similar a lo que obtuvieron Abbad et al (2009), Udzlmd et al (2014) y Cheng (2011) en sus estudios. Este hallazgo da la pauta que para tener una mejor aceptación de los sistemas e-learning entre los estudiantes de grado en Ecuador, es importante conseguir que los líderes o referentes en la organización usen primero éstas herramientas, impulsando así su utilización entre el resto de los miembros de la organización.…”