Students’ Acceptance of Discord as an Alternative Online Learning Media

Muhammad Lukman Arifianto,Iqbal Fathi Izzudin

doi:10.3991/ijet.v16i20.22917

Muhammad Lukman Arifianto, Iqbal Fathi Izzudin

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i20.22917

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Abstract

Since the public release of Discord in May 2015, gamers have widely used it as an additional team speak application to communicate with their teammates while playing games. However, with substantial features, this application is also used as an alternative media of communication in teaching and learning activities. Therefore, this study aims to determine students’ acceptance of Discord as alternative teaching and learning media. Data were obtained using a simple questionnaire. Furthermore, their experience and acceptance towards this application are explored using the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework. The result showed that most participants confirmed that Discord is a favorable alternative media due to the attractive user interface, completeness of features, and its ease of use. Therefore, this application, which was originally intended for the gaming team-speak and team-chat experiences, can surprisingly be used as an alternative online learning media, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is well accepted by most students.

Highlights

The Covid-19 pandemic, which was first recorded in Indonesia at the end of February 2020, led to the mandatory use of information technology by various parties to carry out their daily activities [1][2][3][4]
This study aims to identify students’ acceptance towards the use of the Discord application as an alternative learning medium during the Covid-19 pandemic within the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
This study has shown that Discord, which was originally intended for gaming purposes, was accepted by students as an alternative learning media during the pandemic, even though their acceptance rate is not greatly high

Summary

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic, which was first recorded in Indonesia at the end of February 2020, led to the mandatory use of information technology by various parties to carry out their daily activities [1][2][3][4]. The government launched the Work from Home (WFH) and School from Home (SFH) program to overcome and reduce the spread of Covid-19 infections, thereby shifting activities from face-to-face to online-based [5]. This led to the increase in the dependence of people on the availability of a good and stable Internet connection [5][6][7]. Some of the online media selected by the instructors for their virtual classes are WhatsApp, iJET ‒ Vol 16, No 20, 2021

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