Factors Affecting the Adoption of e-Learning: A Meta-analysis of Existing Knowledge

摘要

There are different factors that can influence a learner's decision on how and when they will use a particular, innovative e-learning technology. In the existing literature, there are many studies that deal with the identification of factors and their impact on a user's acceptance of e-learning technology. This paper demonstrates the results of a meta-analysis - a statistical synthesis method that provides the opportunity of viewing the research context by combining and analyzing the quantitative results of several independent empirical studies. The meta-analysis was conducted on the basis of empirical data gathered from 28 independent empirical studies in the field of e-learning acceptance. The meta-analysis provided strong evidence that perceived usefulness is the strongest predictor of a learner's adoption of an e-learning technology.