EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF MS TEAMS IN CONDUCTING WEBINAR: EVIDENCE FROM INTERNATIONAL ONLINE PROGRAM CONDUCTED IN OMAN

Abstract

The quick adoption of digital platforms in the education sector will always give credit to covid-19. The imposition of lock downs and closure of border as remedial measures forced educational institutes to shift to online platforms for their routine teaching and learning activities. The higher education institutes (HEIs) were found to be more dynamic, as they utilised their online presence in interacting with external members by way of other online activities predominantly webinars. The researchers suggest that online learning will remain to be a vital part of higher education and is going to stay along with other online activities like webinar as it is flexible, accessible, and convenient for the larger section of the students. This study examines the MS team’s platform from the learner’s perspective through technology acceptance model. The 320 responses were gathered from the participants of 22 countries who participated in one-week international webinar organised by two leading HEIs in Oman an online feedback form was analysed through PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 3.3.3. The study aimed to test the degree to which the participants were able to accept MS teams, a popular online learning platform in Oman, as a suitable webinar platform. The results indicate that MS teams is found to be a sufficiently good platform to conduct webinars however, it lags in terms of ease of use or user-friendliness. The study also confirms that attitude towards e-learning influences behavioural intention that subsequently influences the actual use of the platform.