An Analysis of Factors Affecting Students' Attitudes towards Use of E-Learning at Higher Education Level.

Abstract

The emergence of new technologies changed the scenario of the whole world.Technological innovations also changed the methods of acquiring knowledge for students. Taking thisinto consideration, the present research focused on the analysis of the attitude of students towardsthe use of e-learning in addition to ascertaining students' attitudes regarding e-learning at highereducational level with regard to gender, sector and various departments of social sciences,engineering, management sciences and languages. The theoretical foundation for this study wasprovided by the Venkatesh and Davis (1996) Technology Acceptance Model. Data were gathered usinga disproportionate stratified sampling technique. There were total of 736 participants of which 375were undergraduate students at public universities and 361 were from private universities inIslamabad, Pakistan. Mean, t-test, ANOVA, and simple linear regression were used to examinequantitative data. Findings showed that male university students display a more positive attitude incontrast to female university students concerning e-learning. Public as well as private sector universitystudents showed positive attitudes regarding e-learning acceptance. Students from Department ofEngineering and Management Sciences showed a more positive attitude towards e-learning.Moreover, stress has a negative effect and technological support has a positive effect on attitude ofstudents about e-learning. Universities may educate students by training them and providingguidelines for using e-learning for educational purposes.