Extending the TAM model to explore the factors that affect Intention to Use an Online Learning Community

Abstract

An online learning community enables learners to access up-to-date information via the Internet anytime–anywhere because of the ubiquity of the World Wide Web (WWW). Students can also interact with one another during the learning process. Hence, researchers want to determine whether such interaction produces learning synergy in an online learning community. In this paper, we take the Technology Acceptance Model as a foundation and extend the external variables as well as the Perceived Variables as our model and propose a number of hypotheses. A total of 436 Taiwanese senior high school students participated in this research, and the online learning community focused on learning English. The research results show that all the hypotheses are supported, which indicates that the extended variables can effectively predict whether users will adopt an online learning community. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the future development of online English learning communities.

Introduction

With the development of World Wide Web, more and more people are participating in learning activities on the Internet. When a number of people with a common learning goal form a group, it is called a learning community. Online learning communities are gradually altering traditional learning styles because of the pervasiveness of the Internet. Members of these communities come from various places, and have different educational backgrounds and different proficiency levels. They interact for mutual learning of a common subject, such as a second language.

Rovai (2002) observed that, in an online learning community, all members expect that their learning needs will be satisfied by pursuing a common learning goal. It could be said that the members develop a common “collective consciousness”, because they build relationships with one another and their instructors via the user interface. The diverse interactive media play a support role in learning. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the needs of learners and the characteristics of each online learning community when designing online learning courses (Dede, 1996).

In the context of traditional classroom learning, teachers who determine the curriculum guide the course through face-to-face learning. Students absorb the course content from the teachers in the class and interact with peers or instructors through discussions. In general, the teacher plays an authoritative role. It is difficult for us to know whether students are active or passive participants. They may need to complete the work or task assigned by the teacher and get credits after passing the exam. However, we do not know whether such a learning method is suitable for everyone. Undoubtedly, the traditional classroom learning model is still the norm, despite the restrictions on time, space, and class sizes.

The current trend in education is to apply technology in the learning process. As more teachers adopt information technology to assist instruction, more researchers will investigate the issue of technology-integrated education. Davis (1986), who proposed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), suggested that the ease of use and usefulness of a technology affect users’ intention to use it. Therefore, we can predict users’ willingness to accept technology based on their perception by using TAM model. In this study, we build an Intelligent Web-based Interactive Language Learning (IWiLL) community as an online English learning platform for high school students throughout Taiwan. Members of this community can share their learning experiences and discuss course contents with each other. Specifically, we use the TAM model as our framework, and seek other factors that may affect Intention to Use an Online Learning Community to construct our model. We also discuss the casual relationships between the identified factors and explain the real-world phenomena.