Undergraduate Engineering and Psychology Students’ Use of a Course Management System: A Factorial Invariance Study of User Characteristics and Attitudes

Abstract

Implementing information systems (IS) is expensive and sometimes unsuccessful due to low levels of system user acceptance (Legris, Ingham, & Collerette, 2003). For this reason, IS research has focused, in part, on variables contributing to system user acceptance of technology. As a part of this effort, Davis (1989) theorized and tested the technology acceptance model (TAM) to describe how system user characteristics influence patterns in technology use. Pan et al. (2003) successfully replicated the TAM by identifying a causal relationship existing among students' perceived ease of use of WebCT, perceived usefulness of WebCT, their attitude toward WebCT, and their actual use of the course management system. They also succeeded in expanding the original TAM by adding subjective norms in addition to computer self-efficacy. These studies were conducted using students in a course on psychology...