Factors affecting the Students' acceptance of e-learning system: Investigating the role of interface design characteristics and e-learning self efficacy

Abstract

The Internet has become a crucial technological advancement in the ICT (information and communication technology) sector. The Internet provides a variety of services including support for real-time communication among learners, between learners and instructors. Technology has brought significant transformation in education in combination with innovative knowledge thinking. The educational services sector has developed and launched e-learning Systems (ELS) to enable education and training efforts with the auspices of advanced multimedia technology and fast Internet connections. The technological advancements serve as measure to meet the increasingly complex needs of the students, as well as create a competitive education market applicable to cost reductions in the delivery of education. For understanding the factors affecting the acceptance of e-learning system acceptance model and investigating the interface design characteristics this study proposed an extended model of technology acceptance model (TAM). Therefore different constructs from human computer interaction (HCI) and information system (IS) are incorporated in proposed model. The TAM is used among most researchers due to its parsimony, robustness and simplicity. Although TAM has proved its strength in previous research studies for predicting user acceptance across contextual settings and technologies. Nevertheless, some researchers argue that for explaining user acceptance in new information technology systems such as e-learning system, core constructs of TAM are not sufficient. Therefore, this research is based on extending the TAM by adding some constructs in the e-learning system to better understand the potential end users’ acceptance. The study relied on two-stage approach to enable the achievement of the aforementioned objectives. The first phase of the study involved the customization of an already existing e learning system with slight modifications to fit the context of the study. The researcher involved the learners/students in using the system for a specially designed course where the learners/students would use the system for two weeks. As such the researcher experimented with the system to acquire a sufficient number of participants. The second phase involved a quantitative approach based on a cross-sectional questionnaire for the collection of data from the students. The data was used in the validation of the model created. The survey-based questionnaires strategy is the most common tool for the collection of data in information system, software engineering, and human computer interfacing domains. The strategy provides a fast, flexible, and inexpensive way of obtaining feedback from system users. Finally, the structural equation modelling methods used to test the proposed model with potential users of ELS. The study has given developers and designers insights on a user perspective, and this gives them a better position in which to approach the development and provision of e-learning systems. The research findings emphasize that users/students should be provided with a user-friendly platform making it an easy task for them to execute academic functions, encouraging confidence in e-learning system. Lastly, this study will assist in developing e-learning systems that consider factors that might affect users’ perception, thus enhancing their acceptance.