Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 63, April 2013, Pages 306-317
Computers & Education

Perceived playfulness, gender differences and technology acceptance model in a blended learning scenario

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.12.014Get rights and content

Abstract

The importance of technology for education is increasing year-by-year at all educational levels and particularly for Universities. This paper reexamines one important determinant of technology acceptance and use, such as perceived playfulness in the context of a blended learning setting and reveals existing gender differences. After a literature review on the mentioned topics, some statistical analysis, such as difference between means and structural equation modeling, were run with a sample of 484 students. The main contribution of this study is to provide evidence that there exist gender differences in the effect of playfulness in the student attitude toward a technology and the intention to use it. In females, playfulness has a direct influence on attitude toward using the system. In males, this influence is mediated by perceived usefulness. Some implications and conclusions are included.

Highlights

► Perceived playfulness and gender differences are reexamined. ► Longitudinal data from 484 undergraduates are analyzed. ► There exist gender differences in attitude and intentions to use. ► In females, playfulness influences attitude toward using the system. ► In males, playfulness influences attitude mediated by perceived usefulness.

Introduction

The introduction of technology in University programs or degrees is vital at the present time. Students are already digital natives that have grown with the technology and expect to use it at the University. Besides, one of the most significant changes in the field of education during the information age is the paradigm shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered education (Byoung-Chan, Jeong-Ok, & In, 2009).

In today's society, students spend much of their spare time playing multimedia, interactive and social online games and entertainment technology in general. In fact, today's students are mostly from the Net Generation, and they arrive at university having been consumers of technology in ways that previous generations barely understand (Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007). They may associate technology more with playfulness than with learning. Therefore, it is interesting to analyze the influence of the game and enjoy, including also gender differences, regarding the intended use and the use of technology to support teaching and learning processes.

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) is the most frequently cited and influential model for understanding the acceptance of information technology and has received extensive empirical support (e.g., Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003). In this context, some extrinsic and intrinsic motivators of technology acceptance have been considered. Extrinsic motivators, such as perceived usefulness and ease of use (Lee, Cheung, & Chen, 2005) have being proved to be key determinants of the acceptance and use of e-learning systems, however, little is known about students' perceptions in a blended learning setting (Tselios, Daskalakis, & Papadopoulou, 2011). Different constructs such as playfulness, enjoyment and flow, have been proposed as intrinsic motivators. In particular, playfulness is defined as an individual's tendency to interact spontaneously, inventively and imaginatively with computers (Webster & Martocchio, 1992). It has been widely included in the TAM model as a facilitating condition, influencing directly the extrinsic motivators. However, there is not a clear understanding of its specific role and influence on both perceived usefulness and ease of use. Consequently, more research is needed to further explore the nature and specific influence of usage-context factors, such as perceived playfulness, on user's acceptance of a specific system (Moon & Kim, 2001).

Additionally, some studies introduce the gender perspective when testing TAM and consider playfulness. The results so far seem to be contradictory. In some cases no gender differences have been found (Whitley, 1997). In others, evidence has suggested gender differences because males use internet for entertainment and web page creation more than females do (Papastergiou & Solomonidou, 2005). Furthermore, gender differences exist also with regard to web acceptance and use, particularly in flow, ease of use and usefulness (Sánchez-Franco, 2006). Especially, it has been observed that men's usage decisions were more significantly influenced by their perception of usefulness (Kim, 2010; Ong & Lai, 2006). In addition, both genders have been found to use more a web-based system if it is playful and its content is clear and relative to the course, being men mostly motivated by perceived usefulness and women by ease of use (Terzis & Economides, 2011a).

Due to these contradictory results, it is necessary to analyze in detail what are the determinants of intention to use from a gender perspective and in particular considering playfulness. Thus, the objectives of this paper are twofold. Firstly, to test a TAM-based extended model including perceived playfulness as intrinsic motivator for explaining the intention of use of blended learning systems. Secondly, to analyze the differences in the model related to gender, in the context of the TAM, and with students users of a blended learning system (BLS). This paper contributes to the literature, firstly, providing evidence about the acceptance (including gender differences) of an underrepresented technology such as Moodle as blended learning system with longitudinal data from undergraduates enrolled in technical and non-technical degrees. Secondly, the influence of perceived playfulness on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness is analyzed, from a gender perspective. This allows proposing some relevant implications to take into account when adopting blended learning systems.

The context in which the research is conducted is a University where Moodle is used as BLS. The particular innovative experience related to this paper has been developed longitudinally through a period of three years of teaching Management to 1290 students.

The paper continues with a literature review on TAM, perceived playfulness and gender and TAM. From this, a research model is proposed, and the methodology and main results are summarized and discussed. The conclusions and limitations close the paper.

Section snippets

TAM

The TAM model is widely known (Ma & Liu, 2004; Venkatesh, 2000; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000; Venkatesh, Speier, & Morris, 2002) and it has received strong theoretical and empirical support in the literature, being cited more than 700 times (Davis, 2007). The TAM model was initially developed by Davis (1989), based on the theoretical grounding of the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). TAM describes the issue of how users accept and use a specific technology, as a function of the

Methodology

This research is part of an educational innovation project that aimed primarily to understand what were the factors that influence the adoption and usage of BLS based on Moodle (2012a), (2012b) in a medium-sized Spanish university. Additionally, the project was intended to promote communication and collaboration between groups of students, encouraging teamwork, and improve the tutorial activity based on the virtual campus. Regarding learning platforms, there are a variety of them, both

Results and discussion

With the obtained results, descriptive analysis, difference between means, factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis were conducted.

Conclusions

In this paper, a TAM-based extended model including perceived playfulness as intrinsic motivator for explaining the intention of use of blended learning systems has been tested. In addition, the differences in the model related to gender, in the context of the TAM, and with students users of a blended learning system (BLS) has been analyzed. This research contributes to the literature providing evidence about the acceptance of an underrepresented technology such as Moodle as blended learning

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