Factors affecting medical students’ intention to use Rain Classroom: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

BackgroundRain Classroom was one of the most popular online learning platforms in Chinese higher education during the pandemic. However, there is little research on user intention under the guidance of technology acceptance and unified theory (UTAUT).ObjectiveThis research aims to determine factors influencing students' behavioural intention to use Rain Classroom.MethodsIn this cross-sectional and correlational investigation, 1138 medical students from five medical universities in Guangxi Province, China, made up the sample. This study added self-efficacy (SE), motivation (MO), stress (ST), and anxiety (AN) to the UTAUT framework. This study modified the framework by excluding actual usage variables and focusing only on intention determinants. SPSS-26 and AMOS-26 were used to analyze the data. The structural equation modelling technique was chosen to confirm the hypotheses.ResultsExcept for facilitating conditions (FC), all proposed factors, including performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), self-efficacy (SE), motivation (MO), anxiety (AN), and stress (ST), had a significant effect on students' behavioural intentions to use Rain Classroom.ConclusionsThe research revealed that the proposed model, which was based on the UTAUT, is excellent at identifying the variables that influence students' behavioural intentions in the Rain Classroom. Higher education institutions can plan and implement productive classrooms.