The Relationship Between Acceptance, Actual Use of a Virtual Learning Environment and Performance: An Ecological Approach

Abstract

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is regularly used to investigate students’ acceptance of virtual learning environments and the impact on students’ intention to use. Past TAM studies barely investigated students’ actual use of virtual learning environments, neither how actual use relates to their performance in an ecological valid educational context. In this study, a Moodle-based virtual learning environment regarding teaching a foreign language is studied in a teacher education context. The instructional design is based on the four-component instructional design model (4C/ID model). We measured the students’ acceptance of the virtual learning environment using the perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use scales of TAM. Log data were analysed to detect students’ actual use, and a pretest and posttest was used to assess students’ performance. Structural equation modelling (N = 191) reveals that PU has a significant influence on actual use of the virtual learning environment, and that actual use of the virtual learning environment positively influences students’ performance.