Investigating the Factors Affecting the Intention to Use E-Learning from the Viewpoint of Higher Education Students

Background: E-learning has been considered one of the outstanding applications of information and communication technologies during the past years. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the intention of academic individuals to use e-learning with an emphasis on the flow theory. Methods: This is a descriptive and applied piece of research. The study population included 112 e-learning students in the Virtual Faculty of the Isfahan University, Iran. A conceptual model was presented for the research. Liao’s questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire contained 25 items about several factors, including challenge (4 indices), skill (4 indices), interaction (3 indices), intermediate variable (4 indices), three dependent variables of exploratory use (4 indices), intention to use (3 indices), and time distortion (2 indices). Each item was answered on the basis of a 5-point Likert scale, from completely disagree (with score 1) to completely agree (with score 5). Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.87 confirmed the reliability of the questionnaire. The descriptive data were analyzed and Pearson test and covariance analysis were conducted by the SPSS software programs version 23 and AMOS version 24. Results: The findings revealed that skill, challenge, and interactivity have a positive relationship with flow experience which, in turn, is positively related to the intention to use, exploratory use, and time distortion. Conclusions: The finding of this study is the serious and effective behavior of the users, which can be considered a variable of gaining flow experience in e-learning. It is an important aspect by which the users decide to reuse the system in an exploratory manner with no sense of track of time.