Investigating university students’ online proctoring acceptance during COVID-19: An extension of the technology acceptance model

Abstract

To ensure the normal operation of teaching and meet the needs of teaching quality assessment in the COVID-19 situation, universities in various countries have adopted online proctoring for assessment. The epidemic has accelerated the development of online education. Online proctoring, as an integral part of future online teaching, has not yet drawn sufficient attention. To understand students’ experiences and attitudes towards initial online proctoring, an extended technology acceptance model was utilised to examine the motivations and barriers that influence students’ online proctoring acceptance in terms of technology perception, presence and social influence. Structural equation models were used to analyse data from a questionnaire survey of 760 university students. Results revealed that social influence, social presence and perceived usefulness are the significant predictors of online proctoring acceptance. Social influence and social presence have significant positive effects on online proctoring acceptance through perceived usefulness, and social presence has a positive effect on perceived ease of use. However, perceived ease of use has a significant negative effect, while place presence has no significant effect. Implications, limitations and future work are discussed at the end. Implications for practice or policy: Online proctoring organisers can bring a better exam experience to students by ensuring the flexibility and integrity of online proctoring. Online proctoring workers can improve students' exam experience by building a positive group atmosphere in the early stages of online proctoring applications. Social recognition and support for online proctoring can enhance students' choice and willingness to use online proctoring and increase opportunities for online proctoring development.