International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning An Analysis of ODL Student Perception and Adoption Behavior using the Technology Acceptance Model

This paper presents an empirical study aiming on investigating ODL students’ perception and adoption of SCORM Compliant Learning Object (SCLO). With the increasing use of SCLO in recent years, a better understanding and implementation of effective instructional resources is necessary to meet the diverse needs of ODL students and enhance their learning performance. The eventual usage of relevant stakeholders determines the success of a


Introduction
Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) has become one of the important specifications of content packaging and platform development in open and distance learning (ODL).SCORM is created primarily for vendors and designers who build LMS and learning content authoring tools so that they conform to SCORM technically and the courseware content is designed to run on any SCORM-compliant LMSs.Standards such as SCORM allow reusable learning objects (RLOs) to be created and shared across the e-learning community.
SCLO is learning objects that have been meta-tagged for SCORM compliance.SCLO can be easily interoperated among different learning management systems (LMS) without being tied to a single content provider or authoring tool.The use of SCLO is increasingly prevalent in many e-Learning systems and higher educational institutions.This allows reuse of learning objects and helps with cost and time reduction.The same set of learning objects allows for different instructional design with individual learning objectives.
With the potential benefits of SCLO, there are questions raised on whether students will eventually adopt it for their learning.It is vital to understand the factors of information technology system usage in order to evaluate the effectiveness of system and develop solutions for user acceptance (Knight & Pearson, 2005).In this regard, this research aims to understand and determine students' behavioural intentions to use SCLO using the technology acceptance model (TAM).
With the new delivery methods of e-learning systems, TAM can be used in predicting students' acceptance of IT or IS system.It has been found to be a generous and vigorous model in many e-learning studies (Cheung & Huang, 2005;Drennan, Kennedy & Pisarki, 2005;Liaw & Huang, 2003).

Learning Objects
There has been an increased usage of learning objects (LOs) in instructional technology (Anderson, 2003).Wiley (2000) defined LOs as any digital resource that can be reused to support learning.In other words, LOs are a self-contained and re-usable digital resource.
Several studies revealed good impact of learning objects for the effectiveness and efficiency of instructional design strategies.A study conducted by Van  showed that students perceived to have learned more by using learning objects.
Findings from a study conducted by Boyle (2003) also showed that there is positive acceptance of the learning object design.The finding of Cochrane's (2005) study also showed the learning objects have the potential to enhance learning for audio engineering.In addition, Bradley and Boyle's (2004) study found that learning objects have a significant impact in improving the teaching and learning process.
LOs have been integrated into several SCORM-compliant learning management systems (Moodle, Claroline, ATutor, and Docebo) due to their potential benefits.

SCORM-compliant learning object.
SCLO are learning objects that are able to communicate with a learning management system to record user scores, times, and progress (ADL, 2002).These are the most portable and reusable of learning objects as they will work with any SCORM-compliant learning management system.To ensure that the objects themselves are even more portable, SCORM recommends that several other rules be followed when developing the learning objects.Each learning object is a standalone entity.It does not rely on other learning objects to function, and does not specifically refer to other learning objects.
SCLO can be delivered in a runtime SCORM environment and meta-tagged to be stored in and retrieved from a knowledgebase according to different selection criteria.
According to Carnegie Mellon ( 2004), the use of metadata allows identification and location of instructional material in a data repository.

Behavioral Model
The theory of reasoned action (TRA), the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), and the technology acceptance model (TAM) are the three intention based models that focus on the identification of determinants of intentions and the relationships of constructs and variables on innovation usage.

The theory of reasoned action.
TRA was developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) to predict and investigate behavioural belief.As shown in Figure 1, the two psychological determinants, 'attitude towards behaviour' and 'subjective norm', determine intention, which in turn determine behavioural belief.normative belief (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).Behavioural intention is defined as an individual's subjective probability that he or she will perform a specified behaviour (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).
The theory of planned behavior.
TPB is an extension of TRA by adding a construct called perceived behavioural control.Figure 1.The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991).TAM was developed by Davis (1989) to investigate the reasons why people accept or reject an information technology.The TAM model was developed and derived based on TRA model.Figure 3 illustrates the TAM model as proposed by Davis (1989).Davis indicated that 'perceived ease of use' and 'perceived usefulness' are the two most important belief constructs of using information technology.These two beliefs lead to behaviour intention and actual behaviour Figure 2. The technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989).
Based on relevant literature, the researcher decided to use an extended version of Davis's (1989) TAM as the survey instrument.The TAM is considered salient to the attitudes and behaviors studied.The TAM is also used because of its tested validity and reliability in measuring and predicting attitudes, technology acceptance, and use.On top of this, numerous studies have also included external variables to extend TAM in order to improve understanding ways individuals adopt information systems.

Research Variables
The three external variables (content quality, cognitive absorption, and intrinsic motivation) have been added to Davis's extended TAM model in this research study.
Content quality (CQ) can be defined as veracity, accuracy, balanced presentation of ideas, and appropriate level of detail (Nesbit, Belfer, & Leacock, 2003).The construct is vital for the evaluation of digital content resources as suggested by previous studies (CLOE Peer Review, 2004;DLNET Guidelines, 2004;Wisc-Online Quality Standards, 2004).
Cognitive absorption (CA) is the antecedent of two key determinants in TAM, PU and PEOU.Agarwal and Karahanna (2000) argued that cognitive absorption is an underlying determinant of PEOU and PU.Deci (1972) defined intrinsic motivation (IM) as the internal rewards which refer to the pleasure a person has while performing an activity.Lee, Cheung, and Chen (2005) suggested adding IM constructs to better explain IT adoption when they reviewed TAM.To get satisfactory discriminant validity, the square root of average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct should be greater than the correlation between the construct and the other constructs.Table 2 shows acceptable discriminant validity between each pair of constructs, with all AVE square roots greater than the correlation between the constructs.In this study, mean and standard deviation are used to describe the statistics.As observed from Table 3, all the mean values fall above the midpoint.The standard deviations range from .678 to 1.021.This indicates that most of the respondents are between "agree" to "strongly agree" on the items tested.shows that demographic variables had no significant effect on dependent variables."some content are too lengthy, point form would be good" 57 "I used SCLO for my revision" 64 "It would be good if there is audio feature" 73 "need higher bandwidth to ease the access" 78 "I have no problem to use SCLO" 83 "The learning activities are very useful and helpful for me" 90 "SCLO really helps me to understand the content better" 94 "I personally feel this learning aid is better than the others"

Conclusions
The purpose of this research paper was to understand and predict ODL students' acceptance of SCLO by hypothesising the relationships between variables that affect students' adoption behavior.Results of the regression analyses show that the true usage an individual makes of a system is driven by the ITU, which in turn is determined by ATT, PU, PEOU, CQ, CA, and IM.This study demonstrated that the constructs of SCLOAM are viable resources for analyzing ODL students' perceptions towards the use of SCLO for their learning.This research also provides new insight on the evaluation and prediction of technology acceptability.The findings help relevant stakeholders to enhance their existing learning systems by integrating appropriate learning theories.
The findings can be referenced as guidelines to increase the use of particular systems.
In addition, they can widen the applicability of TAM in the education field, especially in the context of SCLO.There are other variables that could be studied in this study.
Therefore, further exploration of other possible constructs like computer self-efficacy is suggested.

AnFigure 1 .
Figure1.The theory of reasoned action(Fishbein & Ajzen. 1975) TPB proposes that three beliefs influence behavioural intentions, which influence behaviour.As shown in Figure 2, individual behaviour is determined by behavioural intention, which is then determined by three psychological determinants.The three psychological determinants are 'Attitude towards Behaviour', 'Subjective Norm' and 'Perceived Behavioural Control'.
Zele et al. (2003) An Analysis of ODL Student Perception and Adoption Behavior Using the Technology Acceptance Model Khor

Table 2
AVE Square Roots and Inter-Correlation

Table 3
Mean and Standard Deviation of Each Variable

Table 4
summarizes the results from the regression analysis.The analyses of the regression equations revealed that the R² and β can be used to predict the values of the dependent variable based on the values of the independent variable.Both R² and β values show how well the data support the hypothesised model.From the findings, it

Table 4
Regression Analysis Result Summary

Table 6
shows the samples of qualitative data collected from the open-ended question.The open-ended question basically asked the respondents what they thought about SCLO.It was an optional question.
An Analysis of ODL Student Perception and Adoption Behavior Using the Technology Acceptance Model Khor