The moderating effect of gender and age on the students’ acceptance of learning management systems in Saudi higher education

Sami Saeed Binyamin ,Malcolm Rutter ,Sally Smith

doi:10.34105/j.kmel.2020.12.003

Abstract

Despite the widespread adoption of learning management systems (LMS) by universities worldwide, it has been found that the students’ use of them is not always optimal. Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), this quantitative research aims to examine the factors that impact the students’ utilisation of LMS in higher-educational institutions in Saudi Arabia. Further, this study investigates the moderating effect of gender and age on the students’ behaviour toward LMS. A total of 851 online surveys were submitted by students registered in three Saudi universities, and 833 responses were used for data analysis. The collected data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) along with multigroup analysis (MGA). The results revealed that gender moderates the relationship between content quality and perceived ease of use. However, the findings also confirmed that age has no moderating influence on the students’ use of LMS. The results obtained and implications of the study are discussed.

Highlights

With the remarkable development of information and communication technologies, higher-educational institutions have widely adopted technology to improve the effectiveness of learning (Kabassi et al, 2016)
To overcome the limitations addressed in the introduction section, this study extended the technology acceptance model (TAM) with eight external variables and two moderators
This paper primarily examined the moderating effect of gender and age on the students’ use of Learning management systems (LMS) in the context of Saudi public universities

Summary

Introduction

With the remarkable development of information and communication technologies, higher-educational institutions have widely adopted technology to improve the effectiveness of learning (Kabassi et al, 2016). The field of education has certainly been affected by this development, which has given rise to the emergence and expansion of new learning approaches, such as online learning (Sheerah & Goodwyn, 2016). Learning management systems are the most popular technology for facilitating online learning and are the most commonly used technology in education (Zanjani, Edwards, Nykvist, & Geva, 2017). The field of education in academic settings in Saudi Arabia has been influenced by this evolution (Al-Youssef, 2015). The market of e-learning in Saudi Arabia is projected to be $273 billion by 2023, which represents the largest market in the Middle East (Research and Markets, 2017)

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Discussion

Conclusion