Predicting students' intention to continue online learning post-COVID-19 pandemic: extension of the unified theory of acceptance and usage technology

• Published in: Journal of applied research in higher education 2023-04, Vol.15 (3), p.681-697
• Main Authors: Marandu, Edward E., Mathew, Ivy Rose, Svotwa, Tendai Douglas, Machera, Robert P., Jaiyeoba, Olumide
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; College Students; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Descriptive research; Distance Education; Distance learning; Educational Environment; Electronic Learning; Foreign Countries; Learning Management Systems; Learning Processes; MOOCs; Online Courses; Pandemics; Student Satisfaction; Teaching Methods; Technology adoption; Technology Uses in Education; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 2050-7003; 1758-1184
• DOI: 10.1108/JARHE-02-2022-0061

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to predict the intention to continue online learning post the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic among students in the two largest universities of higher learning in Botswana. Furthermore, the purposes of this study are to elucidate the nexus between performance expectancy and continuance intention to establish the effects of efforts expectancy on continuance intention to investigate the relationship between social influence and continuance intention to determine the relationship between facilitating conditions and continuance intention and to examine the relationship between satisfaction and continuance intention using the extended unified theory of acceptance and usage technology (UTAUT) model postulated by Venkatesh et al. (2003).Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on the descriptive research design, using a structured questionnaire to collect quantitative data from 509 undergraduate and postgraduate students at Botswana's two major Universities using convenience sampling strategy. An online survey was used to gather primary data due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employed correlation and regression analysis in testing the five hypothesized relationships.FindingsUsing the extended theory of UTAUT as a theoretical lens, the study found that: performance expectancy, social influence and satisfaction predict continuance intention of online learning services. These factors have shown to be good predictors of intention in previous research. Expectancy effort had no influence on intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study covered on only university students from two tertiary institutions; therefore, results cannot safely be generalized to the student population in the country. Therefore, future research should consider enlisting more universities to be more representative, focusing on lecturers, which is an important group in fostering online teaching that could have a spill-over effect on the students' continued online learning.Practical implicationsImplications for online technology selection: These findings suggest that although most universities temporarily adopted online teaching as an emergency solution, students appear to have felt that the outcomes delivered by the system improved their performance. This implies that academic institutions need to consider adjusting the curriculum to promote online learning in the future, whether there is pandemic or no pandemic. Implications