Motivated by the increasing popularity of computermediated communication (CMC) media in university students' learning, this study employs a four-stage novel approach for analyzing and developing a structured hierarchy framework for students' usage of CMC media in learning contexts. First, media characteristics and the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) approach were adopted to understand student-specific reasons for using media. Second, a set of relevant data concerning the university students' reasons for using CMC media was collected by the Repertory Grid Interview Technique (RGT) and analyzed qualitatively using content analysis. The Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) technique was then used to develop a six-level hierarchical structural model of media use reasons. Finally, the cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) technique was used to analyze the driver and dependence power for each media use reason and identify the hidden and indirect relationships among all reasons. The reasons related to students' use of CMC were classified as independent variables, linkage variables, and dependent variables. The study provides a validated typology of different clusters of interrelated students' reasons for using CMC media in learning contexts. The findings of this study will have significant implications and will be helpful for researchers, university policy-makers, instructors, and organizations in framing CMC technology implementation and use strategies.
IntroductionA number of factors suggest that understanding the reasons behind students' use of various computer-mediated communication (CMC) media in their learning contexts is crucial today (Jones, Blackey, Fitzgibbon, & Chew et al., 2010;Liaw, Huang, & Chen, 2007). These factors include the rapid evolution of CMC media over the last decade, the significant number of students becoming extensive users of information and communication technology (ICT) (Horrigan, 2007), and the vast opportunities that students may have with various CMC media to enhance their learning (Jones et al., 2010;Liaw et al., 2007;Tao, 2008). Such an examination could help us maintain and enhance students'interests toward learning through technologies (Tao, 2008) and ensure the successful implementation of those technologies (Kuehn, 1994;Shroff, Vogel, Coombes, & Lee, 2007). However, this growing interest in CMC use has not yet been matched by sufficient attention to identifying a systematic framework describing students' reasons for using (and thus also not using) these technologies in their learning contexts (Guo, Tan, & Cheung, 2010;Tao, 2008). In addition, there is a gap in the understanding of the interrelated nature of these reasons (Dixon, 1996;Rubin, 1983;Rubin & Rubin, 1985). Although past research has attempted to identify the correlations among people's reasons for using media (e.g., Ledbetter, 2009;Rubin, 1983), little research has been conducted to empirically uncover the nature of the relationships among these JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFO...