Self-determination and intention to adopt massive open online courses (MOOC) for professional development

Motivations have shown great influences in people’s acceptance of technologies, this can be concluded from previous research in the field of technology acceptance. This study investigates the relationship between the Self-Determination Theory of Motivation and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and confirms a significant relationship across most of the variables in the theories. The study offered an expanded Technology acceptance model (TAM) in the context of a massive open online course (MOOC), based on self-determination theory (SDT). By investigating the effect of autonomy, competence and relatedness on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and attitudes. The findings show a statistically significant positive relationship between perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and attitudes. Results indicate that autonomy and relatedness have a statistically significant positive influence on attuited but the influence of competence was not statistically significant. Moreover, results show a statistically significant influence of autonomy and relatedness influence on perceived ease of use but the influence of competence was not statistically significant. Also, results show a statistically significant relationship between autonomy, and competence but not statistically significant for relatedness.