درک قصد تداوم آموزش الکترونیکی: گسترش مدل پذیرش فناوری

Based on the expectancy disconfirmation theory, this study proposes a decomposed technology acceptance model in the context of an e-learning service. In the proposed model, the perceived performance component is decomposed into perceived quality and perceived usability. A sample of 172 respondents took part in this study. The results suggest that users’ continuance intention is determined by satisfaction, which in turn is jointly determined by perceived usefulness, information quality, confirmation, service quality, system quality, perceived ease of use and cognitive absorption.

Information technology (IT) has the potential to transform the means by which we learn and access information in two important ways. First, IT enables us to do many of the things we already do faster, more flexibly, more efficiently and with greater access for all. Second, IT enables us to do things that we cannot now do, or to do them in ways that are significantly different. IT makes possible an entirely new environment and experience of learning that goes well beyond the classrooms, curricula, and text-based formats to which we are accustomed. Like any other information system, the success of e-learning depends largely on user satisfaction and other factors that will eventually increase users’ intention to continue using it. In the information systems (IS) domain, we find a considerable amount of academic research examining the determinants of IT acceptance and utilization among users, (e.g. Venkatesh, 2000; Jiang et al., 2002; Heo and Han, 2003; Hsu and Chiu, 2004a; Shih, 2004). There are some theoretical models that attempt to explain the relations between user attitudes, satisfaction and behavioural intention to use and system usage. Among these models, one of the most widely accepted is the technology acceptance model (TAM) proposed by Davis and his colleagues (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989). TAM is derived from the theory of reasoned action (TRA, Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) and predicts user acceptance based on the influence of two factors: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. TAM posits that user perceptions of usefulness and ease of use determine attitudes toward using the system. Another significant area of IS research is users’ satisfaction because it is considered an important determinant in measuring IS success and use (Bailey and Pearson, 1983; Ives et al., 1983; Doll and Torkzadeh, 1988; Delone and McLean, 1992). Among models developed for measuring user satisfaction are a 39-item tool by Bailey and Pearson (1983), the instrument by Ives et al. (1983), and a 12-item End-user Computing Satisfaction instrument by Doll and Torkzadeh (1988). In the IS success model (Delone and McLean, 1992; Seddon, 1997), system quality and information quality are expected to affect both use and user satisfaction. In the meantime, use and user satisfaction become the antecedents of individual impacts and organizational impacts. Seddon (1997) also included perceived usefulness as a determinant of user satisfaction. Rai et al. (2002) extended the Seddon model in which perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and information quality are depicted as the antecedents of satisfaction. Some studies have re-examined the IS success model including service quality as another important antecedent to user satisfaction (e.g. Kettinger and Lee, 1994 and Kettinger and Lee, 1997; Pitt et al., 1995; Negash et al., 2003; Wang and Tang, 2003; Landrum and Prybutok, 2004). Recently, the expectancy disconfirmation theory (EDT, Oliver, 1980) has emerged as an important candidate for explaining the variables that motivate individuals to continue using an IT (Bhattacherjee, 2001a and Bhattacherjee, 2001b; Khalifa and Liu, 2002a and Khalifa and Liu, 2002b; McKinney et al., 2002; Hayashi et al., 2004; Chiu et al., 2005; Lin et al., 2005). The EDT model proposes the causal relationship among the consumer's perceived performance, perceived disconfirmation, satisfaction and repurchase intention. We argue that in EDT, satisfaction is an important antecedent of repurchase intentions, and in TAM perceived usefulness, cognitive absorption, perceived ease of use, perceived behavioural control and subjective norm jointly determine usage intentions. Therefore, our research makes important contributions to the growing body of technology acceptance literature by examining the relationships between EDT and TAM variables in the same model. To better identify the factors contributing to the formation of the user's decision to continue using the e-learning system, this study extends TAM and EDT research by dividing perceived performance into two constructs, perceived quality and perceived usability. In this study, perceived quality is represented as information quality, service quality and system quality. Also, perceived usability is divided into perceived usefulness, cognitive absorption and perceived ease of use. In addition, confirmation, perceived behavioural control and subjective norm are included in our model.

6. Discussion and implications The goal of the present study was to empirically extend TAM using EDT as background by introducing information quality, service quality and system quality as direct antecedents of confirmation and satisfaction. We have also examined the effects of perceived usefulness, cognitive absorption, perceived ease of use and subjective norm on satisfaction, and the effect of confirmation on perceived usefulness, cognitive absorption and perceived ease of use. The present study provides a good explanation of users’ satisfaction, thus, a significant amount of variance in e-learning satisfaction was explained (65%). The results of the empirical analysis provide strong support for our hypotheses. Confirmation was found to be a strong determinant of perceived usefulness, satisfaction, perceived ease of use and cognitive absorption. Consistent with Hayashi et al. (2004), the strongest influence of confirmation was on perceived usefulness. More importantly, this study found that the influence of perceived quality—information quality, service quality and system quality—on confirmation and satisfaction was strong. The empirical results show that information quality had a strong influence on confirmation, and the effect of information quality on satisfaction was stronger than service quality and system quality on satisfaction. The findings are consistent with prior studies indicating that it is not enough to build an e-learning system with a modern interface and friendly screens to influence users’ continuance intention (Ong et al., 2004). The most important determinants of perceived ease of use are Internet self-efficacy, confirmation and cognitive absorption, although the effect of computer self-efficacy on perceived ease of use is also significant. In this research, the influence of perceived usefulness, information quality and confirmation on satisfaction are much stronger than that of service quality, system quality, perceived ease of use and cognitive absorption. Perceived usefulness was found to have the most significant effect on satisfaction, which suggests that a user's belief in usefulness is a decisive antecedent of her or his perception of satisfaction. This is consistent with previous research which found that perceived usefulness plays a more significant and stronger role than perceived ease of use (Davis et al., 1989; Karahanna and Straub, 1999, Devaraj et al., 2002) and perceived enjoyment (Igbaria et al., 1995; Teo et al., 1999) on usage. As found by Shang et al. (2005), cognitive absorption exerted a stronger influence on perceived ease of use than on perceived usefulness. As expected, information quality was found to be another important factor influencing users’ satisfaction, thus, e-learning systems should provide more relevant information to achieve user goals. Our study suggests that when e-learners considered that the e-learning system was able to provide useful information for their jobs, they were more interested in using it and this increased their satisfaction. Therefore, perceived usability and perceived quality constructs play important roles in predicting user satisfaction. In this manner, TAM extended with EDT should be considered a valuable tool to evaluate e-learning systems in certain contexts. Inconsistent with our hypotheses, interpersonal and external influence had no significant effect on satisfaction. Since we used a sample of workers, a possible explanation could be that the social influence comes through direct communication among members of the organization, because information about the benefits of the technology flows from some individuals to others, leading to an increase in the shared beliefs about the benefits of the system (Carter et al., 2001). For example, Amoako-Gyampah and Salam (2004) showed that project communication affects beliefs in the benefits of the enterprise resource planning system. Consistent with prior studies, there was a significant positive impact of satisfaction on continuance intention (Chiu et al., 2005). The study has several limitations. First, since the users were from different countries, cultural differences might be reflected in our results, thus, users may vary considerably from culture to culture in satisfaction formation and technology acceptance. Second, responses to this study were voluntary and thus inevitably subject to self-selection variance (Woszczynski and Whitman, 2004). A commonly used statistical procedure of control for the common method bias is the Harmon one-factor test (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The test resulted in several factors with eigenvalues greater than one and the variance explained was 37.6%, therefore, this finding suggests that a significant amount of common method variance was not present. Third, this study was conducted using a short-term snapshot of users’ behaviour, so additional research efforts are also required to determine the validity of the proposed model and our findings, thus, longitudinal studies should allow the researcher to get an idea of how the users and the relationships among variables change over time. Further research should separate users’ confirmation of expectation following prior use of the e-learning system into three sub-constructs, including information quality confirmation, system quality confirmation and service quality confirmation. Users’ satisfaction should be divided into information quality satisfaction, system quality satisfaction, and service quality satisfaction. Therefore, there is a need for further investigation of the antecedents of user judgements to be used by managers to target resources more efficiently, achieve improvements in user satisfaction and increase the probability that users will reuse the e-learning system. The findings of the present study have various implications for research as well as practice. First, perceived usefulness and information quality are critical to the success of an e-learning system. Both, jointly with confirmation, were found to be the strongest antecedents of satisfaction. Second, confirmation was a significant mediator of the effects that information quality, system quality and service quality had on satisfaction. Third, information quality, system quality and service quality were found to be significant direct antecedents of satisfaction. Four, Internet self-efficacy and computer self-efficacy play important roles in affecting users’ beliefs of ease of use. Since perceived usefulness is the most important antecedent of continuance intention, managers can increase users’ usage intention by improving their beliefs of how the e-learning system can enhance their performance and effectiveness. In addition, e-learning managers must improve the attributes of the target system, thus, information quality should be considered an important issue during the e-learning system's design because users are more favourably inclined toward using it when they perceive that the information provided by the system is clear, understandable and relevant for their job. Service quality, system quality and perceived ease of use also play an important role, thus, managers should develop a system that provides a prompt and reliable service with good user interface consistency. Therefore, this suggests that a user-friendly system should encourage people to reuse it, because when technologies are visually appealing and accessible users tend to experience cognitive absorption. To conclude, the results from this study suggest that ease of use, playfulness and usefulness are considered important issues in IT usage. Our findings suggest that IS practitioners must improve the attributes of the target system, since after the initial period of utilisation, users form perceptions about its perceived quality (information quality, system quality and service quality), and when these perceptions are confirmed, they form a feeling of either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Finally, satisfied users form intentions to use the system in the future. Therefore, in an e-learning context users are more concerned about how an e-learning system provides information and how it will make them more productive in their tasks.