Using the Technology Acceptance Model for Exploring Pre-service Teachers’ Perception towards Online Learning

Abstract

E-learning has a positive impact on both teachers and students in terms of their willingness to learn and train, and their perceived attitudes towards an e-learning environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the behaviour of pre-service teachers towards the use of e-learning in a social science subject via the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The dimensions explored were perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (EU) and their influences on satisfaction (SN) and intention to use (IN) an online modern LMS named Course Networking (thecn.com). Data was collected via a survey and analysed quantitatively to support the investigation. The study involved 69 pre-service teachers pursuing their Bachelor of Education programme in a public university in Sabah, East Malaysia. The results reveal that there is moderate level of acceptance in the observed PU (mean = 3.82), EU (mean = 3.52), SN (mean = 3.35) and IN (mean = 3.82). A further examination on the relationships between the dimensions show that PU influences the intention to use online courses strongly (r = .63). On the other hand, EU also has a strong influence on SN (r = .68). As predicted, the mean score for PU (3.82) is higher than EU (3.52). The study shows that the design, pedagogical and navigational aspects of a course are important to obtain good SN and IN scores from the users.