Measuring e-learning systems success in an organizational context: Scale development and validation

As a promising solution, electronic learning (e-learning) has been widely adopted by many companies to offer learning-on-demand opportunities to individual employees for reducing training time and cost. While information systems (IS) success models have received much attention among researchers, little research has been conducted to assess the success and/or effectiveness of e-learning systems in an organizational context. Whether traditional information systems success models can be extended to investigating e-learning systems success is rarely addressed. Based on the previous IS success literature, this study develops and validates a multidimensional model for assessing e-learning systems success (ELSS) from employee (e-learner) perspectives. The procedures used in conceptualizing an ELSS construct, generating items, collecting data, and validating a multiple-item scale for measuring ELSS are described. This paper presents evidence of the scale’s factor structure, reliability, content validity, criterion-related validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity on the basis of analyzing data from a sample of 206 respondents. Theoretical and managerial implications of our results are then discussed. This empirically validated instrument will be useful to researchers in developing and testing e-learning systems theories, as well as to organizations in implementing successful e-learning systems.