Use of Technology Acceptance Model to Investigate the Acceptance of Learning Management System Amongst Academics using Selected Universities in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the technology acceptance of Moodle learning management system (LMS) amongst academics in public and private universities in Sri Lanka. The study was carried out in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic plaguing Sri Lanka. As a result of e-learning adoption, LMS is a very popular tool that is used in an e-learning environment in public and private universities around the globe. The study population of this research was the academics who teach in Social Sciences & Humanities, Commerce & Management Studies and Computing & Technology at the University of Kelaniya (UOK) and Business, Humanities & Sciences and Computing in the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT). The sample selected using the Morgan table and sample size was 174 and 64 academics from UOK and SLIIT. This study selected stratified random sampling to get an accurate population. A total of 121 academics responded to this survey and those were 60 from a public university and 61 from a private university. The online and printed questionnaires were distributed to academics from selected faculties such as Social Sciences, Humanities, Commerce and Management Studies, and Computing & Technology in public and private universities. The objective of this paper was to develop a theoretical framework by testing five variables Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Attitude toward use (ATU), Behavior Intention to Use (BIU) and Actual Use (AU) and tested model was Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Both types of universities have been using common LMS which is based on Moodle, the public university called it ‘Computer Assisted Learning/CAL’ while the private university called it ‘COURSE WEB’. The research findings indicate that there is the strongest path coefficient between BIU and AU in both universities and the private university indicated the highest coefficient. Further, there is no significant relationship shown between perceived usefulness (PU) and behavioural intention to use (BIU) of Moodle LMS in both universities and no significant relationship between perceived ease of use (PEOU) and attitude towards use (ATU) of Moodle LMS in academics in the private university.