How do university students’ personalities affect their engagement, satisfaction, and stickiness toward E-learning?: evidence from Australia

Abstract

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of e-learning systems worldwide. While much research has explored how learners' personality traits affect their acceptance of e-learning, there's a gap in understanding their readiness to continue using online platforms post-pandemic. This study aims to address this gap by developing a more comprehensive framework for examining the role of the Big -five personality traits in student engagement, satisfaction, and stickiness with e-learning platforms. Data was collected from 403 students across three Australian higher education providers and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that agreeableness and conscientiousness positively influence student engagement, while extroversion and agreeableness impact satisfaction. Furthermore, students' extrovert and conscientious personality traits influence their stickiness towards e-learning. Additionally, student engagement positively correlates with satisfaction, leading to greater stickiness towards elearning. These insights can inform the development of more user-centric e-learning designs and contribute to future research on educational technologies and sustainable user behavior.