An empirical study on the e-learning acceptance among the Finnish labor

Abstract

Background and objectives:

Utilization of e-learning environments and applications in business context has increased rapidly. International organizations, as well as local companies, allocate more resources to personnel development by using e-learning trainings. e-learning provides cost effective training possibilities and therefore it gives a good opportunity for employees to gain knowledge regardless of place and time. e-learning business is predicted to grow approximately eight percent annually during next few years. In addition, worth of global e-learning business will reach total value of 50 billion US dollars. This creates business possibilities both for the organization with training needs and the system providers. Drive for this research was originated from the need to identify those factors that has an effect towards e-learning attitudes and acceptance of Finnish labor. Aim of this study was to provide structural model, based on the existing theories, which helps to evaluate the impact of employees' background and system environment towards user acceptance.

Methodology and data collection:

Research data was collected by using Webropol survey software and survey was sent via email to 406 recipients. Survey yielded overall 115 responses, which were used to test created hypotheses. Hypotheses were based on existing theories but also fitted to the e-learning context. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate measurement model, which was followed by final path model. After constructs, validity, reliability and model fit were evaluated (SPSS Amos 22) final model was tested with suggested thresholds and good fit values. It can be concluded, that validity and reliability meet the suggested satisfactory rate.

Results:

The results of this research indicates that perceived usefulness, in terms of e-learning participation, is one of the most important factors when attitudes toward system usage is under evaluation. System usability (perceived ease of use) has also strong influence on the employee feeling of increasing job output. Previous theories suggest that usage background plays an important role in technology acceptance. In addition, role of perceived usefulness and system usability depends on the level of voluntariness. One identified limitation of this study was the lack of voluntariness distribution. Great majority of respondents answered that their e-learning participation was and will be voluntary.