FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ADOPTION OF E-LEARNING WEBSITES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

The growth of the Internet has altered the way individuals learn. The recent advent of e-learning technology has made training, teaching and learning on the Internet more feasible. The new challenge for Internet education providers is attracting potential learners to use an e-learning website. This study develops a technology usage model for an e-learning website to generate several predictions about users ’ intentions and actual usage. The data obtained from our experiment strongly support our hypothesis. Findings indicate that perceptions of relative advantage and compatibility are significantly related to users ’ intentions; furthermore, users’ intention is significantly related to actual usage of the e-learning website. This study also found that different acceptance models applied to learners who already had previous e-learning experience and those who had never previously used e-learning. For users with prior e-learning experiences, compatibility and result demonstrability have a significant, direct effect on use intentions. However, for users with no previous experience of using e-learning, compatibility, image and relative advantage have a significant, direct effect on user intentions. The study provides a more rounded, albeit partial, view of the online e-learning user and helps improve understanding of e-learning user acceptance behavior on the Web. Those interested in promoting web learning may find these results helpful in guiding their efforts