Predicting college students' acceptance of podcasting as a learning tool

Abstract

Purpose

Podcasting is one of today's most prominent trends in media and computing, but until now, factors predicting its adoption in higher education settings remain largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to examine students' perceptions of enhanced podcasting as a review and exam preparatory tool, through the use of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

Design/methodology/approach

The responses from a structured, self‐administered questionnaire were used to develop an understanding of the role of perceived ease of use, usefulness and enjoyment on behavioral intention to use enhanced (audiovisual) podcasts.

Findings

The statistical analysis indicated that perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment were positively related to intention to use video podcasts, whereas perceived usefulness was not emerged as a strong prognostic indicator of user acceptance. Results also revealed that perceived ease of use is a strong predictor of perceived usefulness, supporting thus the view that perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment are the two main drivers in regard to willingness to adopt podcasting as a learning tool.

Originality/value

Although previous research has found positive attitudes towards educational podcasting, most studies were focused on measuring student acceptance without using an established theoretical framework. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the drivers of student acceptance of educational podcasting, by integrating key variables from TAM found in literature concerning technology acceptance in higher education.

Citation

Zacharis, N.Z. (2012), "Predicting college students' acceptance of podcasting as a learning tool", Interactive Technology and Smart Education, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 171-183. https://doi.org/10.1108/17415651211258281