An empirical research on factors affecting continuous usage of online course – virtual management as the moderator

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the large number of online courses currently available, learners may have difficulty choosing the appropriate course, so online education institutions have launched a free trial marketing approach. The factors influencing learners’ continuous usage of online courses in the mode of course trial have become a prominent and meaningful topic. Online education platforms have also introduced a series of virtual management services for online learning through online communication media, but their effectiveness has not been fully studied. Based on the updated DeLone and McLean information systems success model (D&M model), this study investigated the impact of the online course content and learning platform on learners’ continuous usage of online courses and the mediating mechanism, as well as explored the moderating role of virtual management. The empirical study (N = 371) showed that online course content matching (demand matching, ability matching) and perceived learning platform characteristics (perceived vividness, perceived ease of use) positively influenced continuous usage through satisfaction, and virtual management had a significant inverted U-shaped moderating effect.