Impact of Covid-19 on Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students’ Usage Intention towards E-Learning

Abstract

Covid-19 and its terrible effect has shaken the globe at its core. Therefore, majority of the governments across the globe have shut down the all educational institutions for an unanticipated period to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, to this, the pandemic has triggered the experts to have a relook at the traditional method of education and learning. Therefore, integration of online education is likely to take place in conventional education system. India, to an extent, has been able to include modern information communication technology (ICT) into the education sector. Therefore, the elements affecting learners’ Usage Intention towards e-learning becomes vital to be studied. This study empirically examines the impact of factors affecting e-learning on undergraduate students’ Usage Intention on digital platform, using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The data was collected of 300 undergraduate and post graduate students at private universities in Rajasthan state. which was further analysed using Structured Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings of the study reveal that Subjective Norms (SN), Experience (EXP), Computer Anxiety (CA), and Enjoyment (ENJ) have positive significant effect on students’ e-learning ease of use. Further, Enjoyment and Computer Anxiety showed a positive significant influence on users’ perceived usefulness. Additionally, a positive significant association was found between Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) and both had a strong and positive influence on students’ e learning Usage Intention (UI). The outcomes of the study play a significant role in policy decision making for designing a new e-learning environment in university education systems