Determinants of Academic E-Learning Systems Acceptance

From the beginning of the e-learning technology era, many concerns have been raised regarding the use of e-learning systems in everyday academic didactics. Thus, a number of relevant studies have been conducted in the field of e-learning acceptance, mostly with the help of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). This study investigates factors which influence the acceptance of academic e-learning technologies with the use of the modified UTAUT model. The basic UTAUT model was extended by new factors under examination: system interactivity (SIN) and the area of scientific expertise (ASE). In the survey, a total number of 242 academic teachers were asked to fill out the UTAUT-formatted questionnaire to determine their intention to use e-learning. Therefore, the paper contributes to technology acceptance theory, applied in e-learning, by extending the UTAUT model with two new variables-ASE and SIN-and by verifying the model validating their usefulness. Study results are also valuable for practitioners, such as e-learning systems designers and developers. Factors such as performance expectancy, system interactivity, and area of scientific expertise were crucial for e-learning system development, to ensure that such an information system is widely accepted by end users such as faculty.