Understanding Students’ Acceptance and Usage Behaviors of Online Learning in Mandatory Contexts: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Online learning has been mandatorily adopted in many countries due to the closure of educational institutions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, antecedents of the acceptance and continuance of online learning in such a situation and their changing role over time have not been well understood. This study proposed and empirically tested a longitudinal acceptance model of online learning by integrating the technology acceptance model (TAM) with the task–technology fit (TTF). Data were collected using a three-wave longitudinal survey from 251 Chinese college students after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that most hypothesized relationships in the proposed model were supported and remained across the three-time stages, while the effects of perceived ease of use on perceived usefulness and behavioral intention changed over time. In addition, students’ perceptions at previous stages had little impact on perceptions at subsequent stages, except for perceived usefulness and behavioral intention. Our study demonstrates that the integrated model of TAM and TTF could be an effective tool to understand students’ acceptance of online learning across different time stages in a mandatory setting and that longitudinal design could be applicable to examine the changing mechanism of the acceptance and continuance use of online learning over time.