Determinants of Intention to Use eLearning Based on the Technology Acceptance Model

The purpose of this study was to find some of the predominant factors that determine the intention of students to use eLearning in the future. Since eLearning is not just a technology acceptance decision but also involves cognition, this study extended its search beyond the normal technology acceptance variables into variables that could affect the cognition of an individual due to his or her unique characteristics. The variables in the literature of technology acceptance studies can be classified broadly into 5 categories. They are Individual Differences, Beliefs, Attitude, Behavioral Intention, and Actual Behavior. Since the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is the most widely used model to study the acceptance of technology, this study adopted TAM and further extended it based on the recommendations from the literature of information systems and information technology. It can be said that eLearning is in the ‘Early Adopters’ stage in the academic sector and at the ‘Early Majority’ stage in the corporate sector of the innovation diffusion process. Individual differences are among the external variables said to influence the belief variables in TAM. The research intent is to understand what individual differences can be observed as the characteristics of early adopters of eLearning. Personality traits are one of the predominant measures of individual differences. This study employs the big five personality trait measures to measure the personality types of individuals engaged in eLearning and how they influence their decision to further engaging in eLearning. The variables of the research model are categorized into individual differences, beliefs and behavior. Apart from the TAM variables, i.e., Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU), this study has incorporated Perceived Enjoyment (PE) which is a measure of intrinsic motivation and Subjective Norms (SN) into the beliefs variables category. This research was conducted among the master degree students of eLearning programs at a Uni