Factors Affecting MOOC Usage by Students in Selected Ghanaian Universities

Abstract

There has been widespread criticism about the rates of participation of students enrolled on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), more importantly, the percentage of students who actively consume course materials from beginning to the end. This study sought to investigate this trend by examining the factors that influence MOOC adoption and use by students in selected Ghanaian universities. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was extended to develop a research model. A survey was conducted with 270 questionnaires administered to students who had been assigned MOOCs; 204 questionnaires were retrieved for analysis. Findings of the study show that MOOC usage intention is influenced by computer self-efficacy, performance expectancy, and system quality.Results also showed that MOOC usage is influenced by facilitating conditions, instructional quality, and MOOC usage intention. Social influence and effort expectancy were found not to have a significant influence on MOOC usage intention. The authors conclude that universities must have structures and resources in place to promote the use of MOOCs by students. Computer skills training should also be part of the educational curriculum at all levels. MOOC designers must ensure good instructional quality by using the right pedagogical approaches and also ensure that the sites and learning materials are of good quality.

Factors Affecting Students' Acceptance of e-Learning System in Higher Education

“…In line with this, the result by Ahn et al (2007) also indicated that playfulness has a significant positive effect on individual attitude and behavioural intention to use online retailing. This finding is in agreement with that by Fianu et al (2018) showing that computer self-efficacy was found to have a significant positive effect on MOOC Usage Intention. Additionally, Pellas (2014) suggested that students with higher e-learning self-efficacy are more likely to use e-learning.…”

“…This is consistent with that of a previous study, which confirmed that information quality and system quality had some influence on the intention to use the ClassStart (Thongsri, Shen, and Bao, 2019). Moreover, Sharma et al (2017) found that the main issue affecting the acceptance of learners was system quality (Ahn, Ryu, and Han, 2007;Fianu et al 2018;Wang, Wu, and Wang, 2009). Therefore, a successful e-learning system must have a high functionality with exceptional service quality.…”

“…This finding is in line with the previous study done by S. A. S. Salloum & Shaalan (2018) studying the factors that affect e-learning system acceptance in the United Arab of Emirates (UAE). The study indicated that system quality, computer self-efficacy and computer playfulness have a significant impact on students' perceived ease of use of e-learning (Fianu et al 2018;Wang, Wu, and Wang, 2009). However, enjoyment (p value=0.523) had no significant effect on students' acceptance of e-learning system, which is consistent with the result obtained by Sánchez-Franco et al (2009) who found that the enjoyment of e-learning did not affect the intention to use e-learning among Mediterranean educators.…”

“…Besides, the finding of this study also showed that e-learning self-efficacy (p-value=0.003) had a significant effect on e-learning system acceptance. This provided the support for studies conducted by Agarwal & Prasad (1999), Chang & Tung (2008) and Fianu et al (2018) which found that computer selfefficacy was critical for students' behavioural intentions to use the online learning course websites. These mean that those with a higher self-efficacy will have greater confidence in their ability to use e-learning software and hardware devices.…”

Impact of Quality Antecedents on Satisfaction Toward Mooc

“…Yang et al (2017) investigated the factors that influencing learner continuation in using MOOC, the finding revealed that the factors that impact learner continuance in using MOOC are: (1) system quality, this factor measured the reliability and functionality of the MOOC, (2) course quality, this factor defined by the quality and up-to-date of course content, (3) service quality, refers to the support offers from the MOOC providers such as instructors and IT staff, (4) learner perception about ease of use MOOC; and (5) learner perception about the usefulness of MOOC. Fianu, Blewett, Ampong, and Ofori (2018) also examined the factors that impact the adoption and use of MOOCs on students (N= 204). The findings indicated that continuance intention to use MOOC is affected by system quality, computer self-efficacy, and performance expectancy.…”