Analyzing factors influencing IoT adoption in higher educational institutions in Saudi Arabia using a modified TAM model

IoT is among the most recent innovation that is increasingly growing and being implemented in different areas like higher educational institutions. IoT supports faculty members and students in a dynamic learning environment and influences their collaboration and communication. This innovation has created new excitement and challenges for higher education professionals. Nevertheless, the literature on IoT context focuses more on the technical aspect of IoT and does not give more attention to the behavioral part that explains the users' behavioral intention toward IoT adoption. The main objective of this study is to find the crucial elements that affect students' intention to adopt IoT technologies in Saudi Arabia's higher education institutions. An extended approach based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), as well as six external factors: knowledge sharing (KS), mobility (MOB), interactivity (INTR), innovativeness (INNOV), training (TR), and virtual reality (VR) is offered to achieve this goal. This study employs a questionnaire method for evaluating students' perceptions toward various IoT applications or services used in a saudi higher educational institution. The study can help researchers further investigate the issues affecting IoT adoption in higher education. Also, it creates trustworthy literature to guide decision-makers to adopt IoT to improve and facilitate the learning process and to increase the adoption of IoT technologies academic context.