Students' Perceived Ease of Use of an Elearning Management System: An Exogenous or Endogenous Variable?

Abstract

Five factors affecting student use of an eLearning management system in two Web-enhanced hybrid undergraduate courses are investigated using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This research represents a causal relationship existing between students' attitude toward WebCT and their actual use of the system. Students' perception of the WebCT use, Computer Self-Efficacy, and Subjective Norms are also taken into account. Multigroup structural modeling procedure, specifically PROC CALIS, is used to extract those factors from student use of WebCT and to determine their interrelatedness among one another. Results show that extended adaptations of the Technology Acceptance Model are not as suitable for Engineering students as they are for Psychology students. Of the two competing models in the psychology class, Perceived Ease of Use is deemed an exogenous variable. A multi-sample analysis suggests that covariance structure differences between psychology and engineering students were found obvious over Computer Self-Efficacy and Subjective Norms variables. Lessons and experience from a southeastern metropolitan university in the United States are addressed.

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