Understanding college students' continuous usage intention of asynchronous online courses through extended technology acceptance model

Asynchronous online learning has gained great popularity in higher education, especially due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have investigated how to maintain students' continuous usage intention of asynchronous online courses in the context of higher education. This study incorporated four key factors (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, perception of multiple sources, and cognitive engagement) associated with students' continuous usage intention of asynchronous online courses into technology acceptance model (TAM) to identify the influencing factors on students' continuous usage intention. A survey with 325 college students was conducted to explore their continuous usage intention of asynchronous online courses and structural equation modeling analysis was carried out to analyze the relationships between the key influencing factors and students' continuous usage intention. The results showed that cognitive engagement was the only factor that directly related to continuous usage intention. Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and perception of multiple sources indirectly correlated with students' continuous usage intention through different pathways. The results of the study have several theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the study verified what key learning factors incorporated into TAM and in what way they relate to the continuous usage intention of asynchronous online courses. Practically, the present study indicated that it is required to take intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, perception of multiple sources, cognitive engagement and TAM into consideration when designing and conducting asynchronous online learning courses to ensure college students' continuous usage intention of asynchronous online courses.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the online learning behaviors of university students in Taiwan

Prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, due to the rarity of pandemics in recent centuries, suitable conditions did not exist in educational institutions for the implementation of asynchronous distance teaching. No empirical studies have been conducted on whether the considerable environmental changes caused by COVID-19 have affected students' online learning behaviors. Therefore, this study collected information on students' online learning behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic and other periods to examine whether pandemic-caused environmental changes affected students' online learning behaviors. This study focuses on the 60-day transmission after the beginning of the second semester of the 2019 academic year. The data source was from a comparative assessment between the pandemic group (331 students) and the control group (101 students). The Spearman Rank Correlation Test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used as our statistical methods. This paper presents preliminary results on how COVID-19 has affected students' online learning behaviors and proposes asynchronous online learning as a method for maintaining university students' learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An electronic survey of preferred podcast format and content requirements among trainee emergency medicine specialists in four Southern African universities

INTRODUCTION

Global usage of educational Emergency Medicine (EM) podcasts is popular and ever-increasing. This study aims to explore the desired content, format and delivery characteristics of a potential educational, context-specific Southern African EM podcast, by investigating current podcast usages, trends and preferences among Southern African EM registrars of varying seniority.

METHODS

We developed an electronic survey - using a combination of existing literature, context-specific specialist-training guidance, and input from local experts - exploring preferred podcast characteristics among EM registrars from four Southern African universities.

RESULTS

The study's response rate was 75%, with 24 of the 39 respondents being junior registrars. Ninety-four percent (94%) of respondents used EM podcasts as an educational medium: 64% predominantly using podcasts to supplement a personal EM study program. The primary mode of accessing podcasts was via personal mobile devices (84%). Additionally, respondents preferred a shorter podcast duration (5-15 min), favoured multimedia podcasts (56%) and showed an apparent aversion toward recorded faculty lectures (5%). Eighty-two percent (82%) of respondents preferred context-specific podcast content, with popular topics including toxicology (95%), cardiovascular emergencies (79%) and medico-legal matters (74%). Just-in-Time learning proved an unpopular learning strategy in our study population, despite its substantial educational value.

CONCLUSION

Podcast-usage proved to be near-ubiquitous among the studied Southern African EM registrars. Quintessentially, future context-specific podcast design should cater for mobile device-use, shorter duration podcasts, more video content, context-specific topics, and content optimised for both Just-in-Time learning.