The Emotional State of Technology Acceptance

Computer-phobic university students are easy to find today especially when it come to taking online courses. Affect has been shown to influence users’ perceptions of computers. Although self-reported computer anxiety has declined in the past decade, it continues to be a significant issue in higher education and online courses. More importantly, anxiety seems to be a critical variable in relation to student perceptions of online courses. A substantial amount of work has been done on computer anxiety and affect. In fact, the technology acceptance model (TAM) has been extensively used for such studies where affect and anxiety were considered as antecedents to perceived ease of use. However, few, if any, have investigated the interplay between the two constructs as they influence perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness towards using online systems for learning. In this study, the effects of affect and anxiety (together and alone) on perceptions of an online learning system are investigated. Results demonstrate the interplay that exists between affect and anxiety and their moderating roles on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Interestingly, the results seem to suggest that affect and anxiety may exist simultaneously as two weights on each side of the TAM scale.