The effects of organizational learning environment factors on e-learning acceptance

Workplace learning is an important means of employees’ continuous learning and professional development. E-learning is being recognized as an important supportive practice for learning at work. Current research on the success factors of e-learning in the workplace has emphasized on employees’ characteristics, technological attributes, and training design elements, with little attention to workplace contextual effects. The study aims to investigate the impacts of organizational learning environment factors, including managerial support, job support, and organizational support, on employees’ motivation to use a workplace e-learning system. A model was proposed based on the expectancy theory of training motivation and the social influences and facilitating conditions in technology acceptance models. The model was tested on sample data collected from mainland China using Structural Equation Modeling and Moderated Structural Equation Modeling. The results suggested that employees’ perceived managerial support and job support had a significant impact on their perceived usefulness of the e-learning system for individual learning, and that perceived organizational support had a significant influence on the perceived usefulness of the e-learning system for social learning. Perceived usefulness for individual learning was found to completely mediate the environmental influences on individuals’ motivation to use the system, while perceived usefulness for social learning made partial mediation in the effects of the environmental factors on intention to use. In addition, perceived job support was found to have moderating effects on the relationship between employees’ perceived usefulness of the e-learning system and their intention to use the system. Consistent with previous findings, employees’ perceptions about the usefulness of the e-learning system have significant effects on their intention to use the system in the work setting.     

Linking employees’ e-learning system use to their overall job outcomes: An empirical study based on the IS success model

e-Learning systems are increasingly being adopted by modern enterprises, because of their cost-down effect. However, the extant literature provides little insight into their beneficial consequences. It is expected that a transfer of acquired knowledge, skills and/or work attitudes to jobs will occur through e-learning systems use. This makes e-learning systems a useful tool for improving job outcomes, although this is not well documented. The IS success model, which captures both the human and technological elements of information systems, provides a theoretical basis for linking system use to system task. The current study then examines the relation between e-learning systems use and overall job outcomes based on the model. The data collected from one hundred and ninety-three e-learning system users were analyzed with partial least square (PLS). The results indicate that e-learning systems are perceived as useful and satisfying by employees, and employees’ e-learning systems use is significantly associated with overall job outcomes. In practice, these results provide a basis for establishing a link between an organization’s investment in e-learning and human capital management. They also lend empirical support to the IS success model.     

Assessing e-learning 2.0 system success

Traditional e-learning systems support “one-way” communication. Teachers provide knowledge for learners, but they are unable to use a student’s learning experiences to benefit the class as a whole. To address these problems, this study explores e-learning success factors via the design and evaluation of an e-learning 2.0 system. This study develops a theoretical model to assess user satisfaction and loyalty intentions to an e-learning system using communication quality, information quality, system quality, and service quality. The empirical results show that communication quality, information quality, and service quality significantly and positively affect user satisfaction and loyalty intentions to use the e-learning system for sharing experience, communicating with others, and getting feedback.     

Impact of media richness and flow on e-learning technology acceptance

Advances in e-learning technologies parallels a general increase in sophistication by computer users. The use of just one theory or model, such as the technology acceptance model, is no longer sufficient to study the intended use of e-learning systems. Rather, a combination of theories must be integrated in order to fully capture the complexity of e-learners, who are both system users and learners. The current research presents an integrated theoretical framework to study users’ acceptance of streaming media for e-learning. Three streams of research provide the basis for this integrated framework: the technology acceptance model, flow theory and media richness theory. Students enrolled in an online section of an information systems course used one of three different combinations of text, streamed audio and streamed video. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses in this field experiment. Perceived ease of use was a predictor of perceived usefulness; both the perceived usefulness and the attitude of the user were predictors of intention to use. Richer content-presentation types were positively correlated with higher concentration levels but showed mixed results when correlated with perceived usefulness. Results from this study have practical implications for those interested in integrating streaming media into e-learning.     

Clarifying the empirical connection of new entrants’ e-learning systems use to their job adaptation and their use patterns under the collective-individual training environment

In recent years, with the development of e-learning, it is feasible for enterprises to adopt information systems to enhance organizations’ human capital and knowledge renewal for competition. e-Learning systems designed for new entrants training aim to facilitate new entrants’ job adaptation; however, the empirical link between their system use and job adaptation lacks. In addition, the influence of environmental variables on new entrants’ e-learning training still needs clarification. Thus, based on the theoretical framework of the IS (information system) success model, this study is motivated to make an empirical connection of new entrants’ e-learning systems use to their job adaptation, including organizational socialization and overall job-adaptation outcome, and also to clarify their system use patterns under different collective-individual socialization training environments. Data from one hundred and eighty-six valid respondents who entered their organizations within a year were gathered and analyzed with PLS (partial least square). The results suggested the valid connection of new entrants’ e-learning systems use to their organizational socialization and overall job-adaptation outcome. New entrants also presented partially different system use patterns for adaptation under the different human interaction environments. The findings facilitated the design of training programs for new entrants at the e-learning environment.     

Student Behavior Modeling for an E-Learning System Offering Personalized Learning Experiences

With the advent of computing and communication technologies, it has become possible for a learner to expand his or her knowledge irrespective of the place and time. Web-based learning promotes active and independent learning. Large scale e-learning platforms revolutionized the concept of studying and it also paved the way for innovative and effective teaching-learning process. This digital learning improves the quality of teaching and also promotes educational equity. However, the challenges in e-learning platforms include dissimilarities in learner’s ability and needs, lack of student motivation towards learning activities and provision for adaptive learning environment. The quality of learning can be enhanced by analyzing the online learner’s behavioral characteristics and their application of intelligent instructional strategy. It is not possible to identify the difficulties faced during the process through evaluation after the completion of e-learning course. It is thus essential for an e-learning system to include component offering adaptive control of learning and maintain user’s interest level. In this research work, a framework is proposed to analyze the behavior of online learners and motivate the students towards the learning process accordingly so as to increase the rate of learner’s objective attainment. Catering to the demands of e-learner, an intelligent model is presented in this study for e-learning system that apply supervised machine learning algorithm. An adaptive e-learning system suits every category of learner, improves the learner’s performance and paves way for offering personalized learning experiences.     

An empirical investigation linking learners’ adoption of blended learning to their intention of full e-learning

Learning management system (LMS) is playing a major role in higher academic institutions worldwide. Even though full e-learning is becoming a feasible strategy for a number of institutions in the world, some institutions, especially those in developing countries, are resisting a full e-learning environment. Consequently, these academic institutions initially adopt LMS for blended learning to assess their readiness for full e-learning transformation. There are a number of studies that investigate the determinants of full e-learning, but very limited studies investigate the link between learners’ perception of blended learning and full e-learning. The objective of this study was to link learners’ adoption (perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness (PU) and satisfaction) of LMS in blended learning and their personal characteristics (self-efficacy, technology experience and personal innovativeness) to their intention to use full e-learning. Data were collected through a questionnaire from 512 learners in Oman. The study found that personal innovativeness, PU and satisfaction of LMS in blended learning are significant to learners’ intention to engage in full e-learning. Thus, learners’ adoption of LMS in blended learning boosts their intention to full e-learning. The results provide useful insights for practitioners and researchers on full e-learning planning and strategy.     

The role of experience and innovation characteristics in the adoption and continued use of e-learning websites

With the advent of e-learning technologies in the past decade, the accessibility of training, teaching, and learning has drastically increased. The challenge for the education enterprise now is how to attract learners to their e-learning services. In this study, a technology adoption model is developed to predict the users’ intention of adoption and their continued use behavior. The results show significant evidence in support of the hypothesis. The findings indicate that perceptions of relative advantage and compatibility are significantly related to users’ intention to use e-learning. Also, the intention is significantly related to their actual use of e-learning. Furthermore, the technology adoption of learners with prior e-learning experience is different from those without prior e-learning experience. These findings may contribute to deeper understanding of e-learning users’ perceptions in terms of adoption and continued use behavior.     

Guidelines for the development of e-learning systems by means of proactive questions

The current development approaches for e-learning systems fail to explain in a clear and consistent way the pedagogical principles that support them. Moreover, decisions with regard to the structuration of each component proposed by these approaches are mainly taken by the designer/developer. As a result, the ensuing e-learning systems reflect “common sense” rather than a theoretically informed and systematic design.The present paper proposes a global architecture model for any e-learning system whose blocks are extracted from the analysis of the main approaches that currently guide the development of these kinds of systems. We use Kipling’s famous questions to define and structure the blocks of the proposed model, and we base the answers to these questions on two disciplines that are closed to e-learning: presential education (i.e., its pedagogical theories) and knowledge management.     

Measuring e-learning systems success in an organizational context: Scale development and validation

Electronic learning (e-learning) has been widely adopted as a promising solution by many companies to offer learning-on-demand opportunities to individual employees in order to reduce training time and cost. While information systems (IS) success models have received much attention among researchers, little research has been conducted to assess the success and/or effectiveness of e-learning systems in an organizational context. Whether traditional IS success models can be extended to investigate e-learning systems success has been scarcely addressed. Based on previous IS success literature, this study developed and validated a multi-dimensional model for assessing e-learning systems success (ELSS) from the perspective of the employee (e-learner). The procedures used in conceptualizing an ELSS construct, generating items, collecting data, and validating a multiple-item scale for measuring ELSS are described. This paper presents evidence of the scale’s factor structure, reliability, content validity, criterion-related validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity on the basis of analyzing data from a sample of 206 respondents. Theoretical and managerial implications of our results are discussed. This empirically validated instrument will be useful to researchers in developing and testing e-learning systems theories, as well as to organizations in implementing successful e-learning systems.     

The acceptance and use of a virtual learning environment in China

The success of a virtual learning environment (VLE) depends to a considerable extent on student acceptance and use of such an e-learning system. After critically assessing models of technology adoption, including the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), TAM2, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Usage of Technology (UTAUT), we build a conceptual model to explain the differences between individual students in the level of acceptance and use of a VLE. This model extends TAM2 and includes subjective norm, personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology, and computer anxiety. Data were collected from 45 Chinese participants in an Executive MBA program. After performing satisfactory reliability and validity checks, the structural model was tested with the use of PLS. Results indicate that perceived usefulness has a direct effect on VLE use. Perceived ease of use and subjective norm have only indirect effects via perceived usefulness. Both personal innovativeness and computer anxiety have direct effects on perceived ease of use only. Implications are that program managers in education should not only concern themselves with basic system design but also explicitly address individual differences between VLE users.     

Linking employees’ e-learning system use to their overall job outcomes: An empirical study based on the IS success model

e-Learning systems are increasingly being adopted by modern enterprises, because of their cost-down effect. However, the extant literature provides little insight into their beneficial consequences. It is expected that a transfer of acquired knowledge, skills and/or work attitudes to jobs will occur through e-learning systems use. This makes e-learning systems a useful tool for improving job outcomes, although this is not well documented. The IS success model, which captures both the human and technological elements of information systems, provides a theoretical basis for linking system use to system task. The current study then examines the relation between e-learning systems use and overall job outcomes based on the model. The data collected from one hundred and ninety-three e-learning system users were analyzed with partial least square (PLS). The results indicate that e-learning systems are perceived as useful and satisfying by employees, and employees’ e-learning systems use is significantly associated with overall job outcomes. In practice, these results provide a basis for establishing a link between an organization’s investment in e-learning and human capital management. They also lend empirical support to the IS success model.     

Assessing the usability of a visual tool for the definition of e-learning processes

In this paper, we present a usability study aiming at assessing a visual language-based tool for developing adaptive e-learning processes. The tool implements the adaptive self-consistent learning object SET (ASCLO-S) visual language, a special case of flow diagrams, to be used by instructional designers to define classes of learners through stereotypes and to specify the more suited adaptive learning process for each class of learners. The usability study is based on the combined use of two techniques: a questionnaire-based survey and an empirical analysis. The survey has been used to achieve feedbacks from the subjects’ point of view. In particular, it has been useful to capture the perceived usability of the subjects. The outcomes show that both the proposed visual notation and the system prototype are suitable for instructional designers with or without experience on the computer usage and on tools for defining e-learning processes. This result is further confirmed by the empirical analysis we carried out by analysing the correlation between the effort to develop adaptive e-learning processes and some measures suitable defined for those processes. Indeed, the empirical analysis revealed that the effort required to model e-learning processes is not influenced by the experience of the instructional designer with the use of e-learning tools, but it only depends on the size of the developed process.     

Understanding the effect of e-learning on individual performance: The role of digital literacy

With the diffusion of easy-to-use Web 2.0 tools, such as podcasts, blogs and wikis, e-learning has become a popular mechanism for individual training. While individuals use these tools in the hope that their training will improve their performance, this relationship is not a given. This paper proposes that an individual's level of digital literacy affects her performance through its impact on her performance and effort expectations. To explain the influence of digital literacy on the intention of individuals to continue using e-learning and their performance, we integrate the concept of digital literacy with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and test our model using survey data from New Zealand accountants working in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The results indicate that these relationships were significant: digital literacy on users' performance and effort expectations, performance expectations on users' intentions to continue using Web 2.0 tools, and continuance intention on performance. These findings suggest that individual digital literacy facilitates the use of e-learning, and should be considered when examining the impact of the latter on performance.     

Investigating critical success factors in online learning environments in higher education systems in the Caribbean*

ABSTRACT

Online learning has grown as a key method in education management over the last couple of decades. Studies have shown that significant investments in this technology are being made by universities, yet the full benefits expected have not been realized due to issues and challenges experienced by stakeholders such as learners and instructors in adopting and effectively using e-learning. This is especially true in developing economies where they may be attempting online delivery modes for the first time. In this study, we explore the question “What are the factors that influence university students’ adoption and use of an e-learning system in the context of the English-speaking Caribbean?” using an extended technology acceptance model framework. Partial least squares analysis was used to test the derived research model and found that critical success factors influencing students’ perception and use in online learning settings, particularly those within a developing economy conditions, include supportive cultural practices, access to computers, system or online environment availability, computer and online learning self-efficacy, user perception of usefulness and ease of use. These results have significant implications for university executives and policy-makers as they consider adopting online learning delivery modalities for users.     

Investigating e-learning system usage outcomes in the university context

This paper investigates the outcomes of e-learning systems adoption and use by conceptualizing three e-learning systems adoption outcome constructs namely perceived learning assistance, perceived community building assistance and perceived academic performance. Utilizing these constructs, the paper proposes a research model for assessing the possible outcomes of e-learning systems adoption and use. The study collected longitudinal survey data from 249 university students participating in hybrid courses using a popular learning management system, Moodle. Partial least squares (PLS) approach was then used to test the research model.The findings suggest that beliefs about perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and how an e-learning system is used influence students' perceived learning assistance and perceived community building assistance. In turn, perceived learning assistance and perceived community building assistance influence the students' perceived academic performance.     

Developing a model to assess the success of e-learning systems: evidence from a manufacturing company in transitional economy

This paper examines the success of an e-learning system in a company from the perspective of employees by using a multimethod approach. For this purpose Moodle learning management system was used. The success of e-learning as an information system was evaluated using four constructs of the updated DeLone and McLean IS success model—system quality, use, user satisfaction and net benefits, and adding one more construct—user performance. In this research a combination of observation and survey as two different research methods was used, which allowed the new measure to be incorporated into the model. Empirical assessment was carried out by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The research model was found to be valid and reliable. The results provide an expanded understanding of the constructs that measure the success of an e-learning system, helping to more deeply understand the key success dimensions and their interrelationships. The implications of our work were discussed. The DeLone and McLean IS success model applied equally well. However, the use of observation as a method of data collection revealed the weaknesses of the original model.     

E-learning adoption of academicians: a proposal for an extended model

From the beginning of the e-learning technology era, many concerns arose regarding the use of e-learning in everyday academic processes. Thus, in recent years, a number of studies were conducted on e-learning acceptance, mostly with the use of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) Model. Current study investigates the determinants of acceptance of academic e-learning technologies with the use of proposed modified UTAUT model. The basic UTAUT model was supplemented by the examined new determinants: system interactivity and the area of scientific expertise. Therefore, the paper contributes to UTAUT theory, applied in e-learning, by utilising empirical research with a modified UTAUT model including these two new variables. This study confirmed the hypotheses related to the effects of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and system interactivity on behavioural intention to use e-learning technologies, and also stated that the area of scientific expertise does not have a direct impact on the intention to use e-learning technologies. The research model has been tested in an academic environment in Turkey.     

Acceptance of competency-based workplace e-learning systems: Effects of individual and peer learning support

Current endeavors to integrate competency-based learning approaches with e-learning systems designed for delivery of training to adult learners in the workplace are growing. However, academic efforts in examining learners’ perceptions of, and reactions toward, this technology-delivered pedagogical innovation are limited. Drawing together perspectives from the literature on training and instructional design and technology acceptance, this research proposed a conceptual model to examine the influences of perceived individual and social learning support on employees’ acceptance of competency-based e-learning systems. Structural equation modeling and multi-group structural equation modeling techniques were applied to sample data collected from work settings in Mainland China. The results show the positive effects of perceived individual learning support and perceived support for promoting a norm of cooperation on employees’ intention to use the competency-based e-learning system. It was also found that perceived support for enhancing social ties had a negative effect on employees’ behavioral intention. The gender, age, prior experience, and work experience differences in the main effects were also investigated. Besides, qualitative data collected via semi-structured in-depth interview provide complementary evidence to the findings.     

ERP training with a web-based electronic learning system: The flow theory perspective

Whilst the importance of end-user training is recognized as a factor in the success of information systems, companies have suffered from relatively low information system training budgets and an insufficient number of trainers. However, technological innovations in computers, telecommunications and the Internet, e-learning has made it possible to overcome many constraints. In this study, we suggest an e-learning success model based on flow theory. A questionnaire-based empirical study was used to test the model. It used data from e-learners who participated in a program on Enterprise Resource Planning training with a web-based e-learning system supported by the Korea Ministry of Information and Communication. Results confirm the significant interdependent relationships between the characteristics of e-learning, flow experience, learners’ attitude towards e-learning, and the resulting learning outcomes. In particular, it was revealed that flow experience plays a critical role as a central part of our research model, having direct and indirect impact on learning outcomes (i.e., the technology self-efficacy in ERP system usage in this study). This study should be of relevance to both researchers and practitioners alike, as a step towards a better understanding of e-learning, especially in the context of information system training.