Students’ Intention to Take E-Learning Courses During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Protection Motivation Theory Perspective

Abstract

This study proposes a new model for integrating the protection motivation theory (PMT) with the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explore factors affecting students’ intention to attend e-learning courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 432 valid responses to an online questionnaire were received from freshmen students studying in universities in Vietnam and Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the proposed research model and test the hypotheses, and model evaluation reflected a good fit between the data and the proposed research model. Differences between perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, and intention to take e-learning courses across two countries were also established, suggesting that both the TAM and the PMT should be considered for use in studies related to technology adoption in the pandemic context. The factors influencing students’ intentions to take online courses can be quite varied when different educational settings are considered; therefore, a more contextual understanding of students’ e-learning intentions during pandemic times should be carefully examined. Suggestions for governments and policy makers are also proposed.

Work-from-home intention during the COVID-19 pandemic: a perspective integrating inclusive leadership and protection motivation theory

“…Although the mediating role of human attitude in the relationship between PV and human intention has not been established in some previous studies (Nguyen and Tang, 2022), our study demonstrated the mediating role of WFHRA in this relationship. Such differences can be brought about by differences in human awareness about the COVID-19 pandemic at each different stage (Maison et al, 2021;Perrotta et al, 2021).…”

“…Between the two PMT factors, PV was found to have a slightly higher impact on WFHI than PS. In contrast, in a study on students' e-learning intention during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nguyen and Tang (2022) indicated that PS has a stronger impact on students' intentions. This difference could be due to the changing pandemic situation and the growth in the vaccination rate.…”

“…Also, in the context of COVID-19, Nguyen and Tang (2022) demonstrated that only PS has both direct and indirect effects on people's intentions through the mediating role of attitudes, whilst PV was found to only have a positive direct effect on people's intentions. Scholars have also proposed using the aforementioned behavioural change principles as a way of encouraging people to take more beneficial actions in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic (Nguyen and Tang, 2022;Prasetyo et al, 2020). The present study argues that PS and PV influence employees' WFHRA, thereby causing their intentions to change towards choosing WFH.…”

“…A threat appraisal considers both the severity and vulnerability of a situation (Meso et al, 2013;Rippetoe and Rogers, 1987;Sturges and Rogers, 1996). Due to the value of PMT, it has been considered one of the most useful theoretical backgrounds available for studies examining attitudes and behavioural changes in emergent situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Al-Rasheed, 2020;Kim et al, 2022;Nguyen and Tang, 2022). In studies such as these, protective motivation is thought to be caused by the cognitive appraisal process, which takes in perceived severity (PS) and perceived vulnerability (PV) and leads to a shift in attitude followed by the intention to perform a certain behaviour (Chenoweth et al, 2009;Conner and Norman, 2015;Siponen et al, 2014).…”

“…Specifically, at the time of this study, Taiwan recorded more than 22,000 cases of COVID-19 per day (Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, 2022), whilst Vietnam only recorded just over 1,000 cases per day (The Ministry of Health, 2022). Perspectives based on PMT have argued that different levels of risk can cause differences in people's behavioural intentions to take protective measures (Hong et al, 2021;Nguyen and Tang, 2022). Moreover, differences in risk perception also cause differences in human behavioural intention to take protective measures (Bae and Chang, 2021).…”