Exploring the Factors Affecting College Students' Intention to Use Online Teaching Platforms Through an Extended Technology Acceptance Model

Abstract

Online teaching platforms (OTPs) are becoming important mediums for supporting college students in course learning activities. Their intention to use is critical for promoting learning effectiveness, efficiency, and continuous development of OTPs. Drawing upon the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study builds the research model of students' intention to use the OTPs with consideration of platform characteristics and social influence. The PLS-SEM method is employed to analyze 194 responses from students at a university. The results show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and social influence positively influence students' intention to use. Perceived ease of use positively affects perceived usefulness. In addition, social influence is positively related to perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, respectively. The study extends the TAM model by incorporating social influence to promote it relevant to the context of OTPs. The findings offer insights that universities and OTP providers could adopt to promote the use of OTPs by students.