Behavioral intention of "digital natives" toward adapting the online education system in higher education

Purpose The aim of the study is to examine the intention of students toward the online education system with emphasis on online examination in higher education. The study investigated different constructs that have an influence on the use of the online platform for learning to the specific domain that mitigates the personal needs of the learners outside the physical class boundaries. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire in a single cross-sectional survey from 430 students of higher educational institutions in India. The partial least square approach was used for path modeling to examine the relationships in the proposed research model using Smart PLS-3.3.2. Findings Attitude, ease of use and usefulness have a significant relationship with the behavioral intention to use the online education system. However, nature of residential status, use of devices and use of network have an insignificant impact on the intention to use the online educational system. Research limitations/implications Though the study focused on the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine the relationship in the proposed model, there is a need to consider the other constructs such as perceived behavioral control, past experience, etc. in future studies. Originality/value This paper identified the major determinants of students' intention to adapt to the online education system with special reference to the examination system and proposed a direction to encourage the higher education students to use online education as an alternate of physical classroom education.