Resumen de Modelo de aceptación de los sistemas e-learning en las universidades: un enfoque del modelo de aceptación de la tecnología ajustado al ecuador

Richard Ivan Ramirez Anormaliza

• In the new knowledge economy, the burgeoning and flourishing success of the Internet promotes web-based learning and makes it a meaningful and flexible learning environment. But to achieve all the benefits offered by e-leaming systems, it is necessary to predict which the factors that encourage or hinder their acceptance are.

  The objectives of this research were: to adapt the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to predict the use and intention of e­learning systems: and determine the moderate effect of the college category; in students and university professors of Ecuador. With the intention of improving the understanding of the factors that can enhance the use of e-learning systems and facilitate the application of policies to increase the benefits that contribute to the process of teaching and learning.

  From the review of the literature, the TAM was adapted to the case of Ecuador, for the effect two questionnaires were elaborated with 52 ítems in Likert scales. Were sent by e-mail to 1,580 students and 1,379 university professors, 689 students and 618 professors answering successfully, the sample designed allowed to have representativeness of all categories of universities. Validity and reliability checks of the partial least squares (PLS) structural equations model were performed, supported by the SmartPLS statistical software. To conclude the study, a multigroup analysis was performed by the permutation method to determine if the university category moderates the acceptance of e-learning systems in Ecuador. The results indicate that all the TAM hypotheses are fulfilled in the Ecuadorian context, when evaluating the acceptance of e­ learning systems among students and university professors. The main contribution was to identify that perceived entertainment, social influence and computational self-efficacy have a direct effect on the two main constructs of TAM (perceived ease of use - PEOU and perceived utility-PU), in the case of teachers;While in the case of students, in addition to the factors exposed, technical support is added. lt was found that satisfaction (S) receives direct influence of PU and in turn S influences the use of e-learning systems, for both cases . lt is concluded thal in general terms the variable category of university does not have a moderating effect, except in the specific case when comparing the universities of category "A" with the universities of category "O" from the perspective of the students,where the results allow Say that there is a slight moderating effect. lt is important to mention that the data fit the proposed models, the models were predictive and explanatory.

  First limitation in this research is not having considered age, gender, postgraduate students,socio-economic status, among other characteristics of students; In the case of teachers, no account is taken of age, gender,time of dedication (full, half or partial), type of link with the university (holder or contract), maximum level of education Or doctorate). Following the limitations of the study, it was not considered the possibility of analyzing the behavior of students and professors of public and private universities. lt can also be considered as a limitation, not to address the impact of the use of the e-learning system, ie the student's learning performance with the use of the e-leaming system . lt could also be considered as a limitation in the methodological, having used in this research only the permutation test to establish the significant differences between groups .

  This research is relevant because of the empirical data obtained, there is no history of something similar in Ecuador.