Predicting behavioural intention among graduate students in emergency remote teaching: evidence from a transition country

Abstract

Emergency remote teaching (ERT) is a new concept that describes the context in which instructional delivery is switched entirely online due to crisis circumstances. Recent research in such a context has been focused either on exploring the unique learning environment and enabling factors or on instructors’ intended behavior, with few studies exploring the students’ perspective. This study aims to contribute to the literature on technology-mediated teaching and learning by deepening the knowledge of the factors determining students’ behavioral intentions (BI) in ERT settings, using a survey of 487 graduate students attending public and non-public universities in Albania conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was employed to explore the chain relationship between ease of use (EASYUSE), expected efficiency (EE), attitudes (ATT), and BI. We expand the TAM model and increase its explanatory power by introducing new variables, such as co-presence (CP), and emergent variables, such as lack of learning materials and time constraints. Variance-based partial least squares techniques were used to validate our conceptual model. As hypothesized, EE and EASYUSE have a direct, positive effect on BI and an indirect effect via ATT. CP does not influence the BI directly but only indirectly via ATT and EE. Finally, the lack of learning materials is shown to negatively affect EE. While some of the findings have limited generalizability the specific research setting provides a unique opportunity to investigate the critical role of interactive teaching methods and learning barriers on students’ intentions and ATT. The fresh insights gained from the extended TAM model have important implications concerning the effective and systematic use of online modalities in similar settings. Supplementary Information The online version of this article (10.1007/s40692-022-00239-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Technology External Cause or Individual Internal Cause? Multiple Ways to Improve the Online Learning Effectiveness of Tourism and Hospitality Management Students

“…In this student-led learning mode, PU and PEU, as online learning environment factors, can improve learning effectiveness by impacting students’ LA and SE. Specifically, PU can actively improve students’ LA (Al-Fraihat et al, 2020), while PEU improves their learning confidence by reducing usage difficulty (Dibra et al, 2022).…”

“…Students need to devote themselves to adapting to new learning modes. If students perceive that learning, interaction, and submitting assignments on the learning platform is convenient, their intimidation and anxiety will be reduced (Dibra et al, 2022). In addition, easy-to-use platforms mean that students will spend less time and effort to get familiar with them, and contribute to focusing their limited attention on their learning tasks (Chen & Yao, 2016; Gao et al, 2020).…”

“…Unlike regular online learning in noncrisis situations, online learning affected by COVID-19 is an emergency solution to ensure uninterrupted learning activities. Students and teachers in different spaces need to adapt to a new learning model in a short time, which has also been referred to as emergency distance teaching (Clemente et al, 2022; Dibra et al, 2022). It has become a key alternative to face-to-face teaching in special times and has shown significant relevance (Clemente et al, 2022).…”

Students' behavior and intention to use e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case of TAM through SEM analysis in Albania

“…There is a dearth of research investigating how Albanian university students adopted and used e-learning during this period. Only Dibra, Gerdoçi, Sula, and Kurti (2022) conducted quantitative research in predicting the behavioral intention among graduate students in emergency remote teaching. Therefore, more research is required on the variables that influence students' behavioral intentions to utilize e-learning during COVID-19 in the Albanian context.…”