Roles of perceived fit and perceived individual learning support in students\u2019 weblogs continuance usage intention

Princely Ifinedo

doi:10.1186/s41239-018-0092-3

Abstract

Weblogs (or blogs) are increasingly being used in higher educational contexts. Not much is known about the factors that influence students’ continued usage intention of weblogs. This study uses the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) as its background theoretical framework, and explores the roles of antecedent factors of perceived fit and perceived individual learning support in the research model. A cross-sectional survey was used to collect data from 108 undergraduate students taking a management information systems (MIS) course in a small university in Canada. Relevant hypotheses on the subject matter were formulated and tested. The partial least squares (PLS) technique was used for data analysis. The results strongly support the proposed hypotheses, indicating that perceived fit, perceived individual learning support, perceived usefulness, confirmation, and satisfaction have positive effects on students’ continued usage intentions of Weblogs. The findings of this study have practical and theoretical implications, which are succinctly discussed, and suggestions for future research outlined.

Highlights

Information and communication technologies (ICT) in general, and collaborative technologies in particular, are useful resources for improving teaching and learning in the higher education sector (Ifinedo, 2007; Wagner, Hassanein, & Head, 2008; Lai & Chen, 2011; Bennett, Bishop, Dalgarno, Waycott, & Kennedy, 2012; Mansouria & Piki, 2016)
The main purpose of this study is to investigate influences of salient factors on undergraduate students’ continued intention to use weblogs for learning in a management information systems (MIS) course
The results show that the amount of variance explained by the interaction of the independent constructs in the model ranged from 52% to 76%

Summary

Introduction

Information and communication technologies (ICT) in general, and collaborative technologies in particular, are useful resources for improving teaching and learning in the higher education sector (Ifinedo, 2007; Wagner, Hassanein, & Head, 2008; Lai & Chen, 2011; Bennett, Bishop, Dalgarno, Waycott, & Kennedy, 2012; Mansouria & Piki, 2016). Weblogs are open systems that use simple user interfaces which include a variety of features (e.g., text, graphics, audio, and video clips) (Lai & Chen, 2011). Perhaps due to their simplicity, students and instructors have come to accept weblogs as essential and innovative tool in the learning environment (Ellison & Wu, 2008; Paulus et al, 2009; Lai & Chen, 2011; Zhang et al, 2014; Mansouria & Piki, 2016)

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