eLEARNING PERCEIVED USEFULNESS, SELF-EFFICACY AND ATTITUDE OF DISTANCE LEARNERS AND E-LEARNING UPTAKE AT THE COLLEGE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST

Abstract

This study has been reported on the extent to which Distance Learners are ready to take up the deployment of eLearning as an alternative mode to the fortnightly face to face sessions organized at the various study centres across the Country, Ghana. Specifically, this study sought to predict the rate of eLearning utilization taking into consideration determinants such as eLearning perceived usefulness, self-efficacy, and attitude of Distance Learners. The theory guiding this study was the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1980), people behave in a certain direction, if they perceived that the outcome of the antecedent behavior will be beneficial to them. In this context, this study hypothesized that UCC Distance students will tend to use eLearning if they perceived usage to be beneficial to them. Three sets of questionnaires, with Cronbath’s Alpha reliability coefficients above 0.70, were used to collect data. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data collected from 472 distance students of the University of Cape Coast. Regression and one way anova statistical tools were used to test the hypotheses. The results of the study indicated that there are regional differences shown by UCC distance students in relation to how they perceived the usefulness of eLearning, their self-efficacy and attitude towards eLearning. This study also revealed that the University of Cape Coast, distance students’ use of eLearning is not dependent on how they perceived eLearning to be useful. Again the study found that distance students’ use of eLearning cannot be predicted by their attitude towards eLearning. Rather, Distance learners’ perceived eLearning self-efficacy is a major predictor of eLearning usage at the College of Distance Education, university of Cape Coast. This study, therefore recommends that ICT- based training programmers should be periodically organized for the distance students, which should take cognizance of the regional differences established by this study.