Research on Influencing Factors of Distance Learning Behavior Intention in Virtual Experimental Environment

Abstract

In distance education, virtual labs conduct a paramount role in the construction and development of practical engineering majors. In turn, the behavioral intention of distance learners’ willingness to use it determines whether virtual labs can be well used and promoted. For the sake of deeply understanding the factors which may exert certain influence on behavioral intention, this paper constructed a model of factors affecting behavioral intention of distance learning in virtual lab environment on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and conducted an empirical investigation study on 425 learners. As conspicuously revealed by the research findings, effort expectation, performance expectation, community influence, concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, active practice, and interactivity of the experimental platform can impose positive effects on learners’ intention to use the virtual experimental platform. Aside from that, both reflective observation and imagination cannot remarkably affect behavioral intention. What’s more, concrete experience has the most noticeable effect on behavioral intention.