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In today¶s information society, knowledge and know how are some of our most valuable assets,
setting the education sector under pressure to deliver according to demand. Major challengers in
education include issues, i.e. being able to provide education to who requests, cost (of providing
education) and declining public revenues with most of education still being in responsibility of
the public sector( Daniel 1997). Many believe that the application of advancing ICT to education
might help overcoming those challenges Daniel 1997, Shirley 2001).

Applying ICT to education is also referred to as e-Learning (i.e electronic learning), Nichols
(2003) defines e-learning as constituting ³ the use of various technological tools that are either
web-based , web distributed, or web-capable for the purpose of education´. E- learning in higher
education may include anything ranging from support for teachers in their traditional classroom
teaching to complete courses thought electronically over a geographical distance (Keller &
Cernerud 2002). It provides new ways of designing and delivering education to students (Mallak
2001) and can change the ways in which things work, how students learn and teachers teach
(Laundry et. Al 2006). Common factors and services of e-learning technology can be offered to
students for instance include new updates and announcement, downloading of class documents,
taking assessment , an the opportunity to communicate with other students and teachers.

A recent trend in higher education has been to set up e-learning systems that provide students
with online access and learning ±content. What drives this trend are changes in students¶
demographic factors in educational delivery market conditions, and in innovation technology
itself ( Concannon, Flynn & Campbell, 2005). There are , however, numerous barriers to the
integration of instructional technology into college education, such as technology infrastructure,
college effort, technology satisfaction and students competency (Surry, Ensminger , & Haab,
2003). Even many higher online educational institutions have failed due to the high cost of
technology, poor decisions, competition, and the absence of a business strategy (Elloumi,2004).
Many learning institution provide e-learning face enormous difficulty in achieving successful
strategies, including the delivery, effectiveness, and acceptance of the course (Saadle,2003).
Merely offering any conceivable course and tempting to replicate classroom experience online
cannot meet the students¶ need and may cause unexpected failure (Kihmurray, 2003). College
students¶ persistent frustration in web-based education is another problem in terms of online
learning. This drives more students centered research of online education (Hara, 2000). With
the growing reliance on information systems and increasing rapidly of the introduction of new
technologies onto learning environment, identifying the critical factors related to user acceptance
of technology continues to be an importance issue (Yi & Hwang, 2003).

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Most universities have continued to offer partial, blended of fully online e-learning course since
the late 1990s. At present, most off-line universities have either introduced an e-learning plan or
have implemented e-learning. Despite quantitative growth of e-learning, there is growing
concern that stresses quality assessment for e-learning in Malaysia. The pedagogical e-learning
is closely related to the computer ±based training. E-learning system can be developed in various
ways depend on the requirement of the learning institution. Some of these institutions only
limited to course materials delivery through web, and the others have had integral framework for
their e-learning system to be used for regular students and distance students.

Laundry el al (2006) state that as education through applying the ³e´ becomes more interactive it
is extremely important for designers of such systems to know what students value and what they
find useful. Keller & Cernerud (2002) and others called for research on students perspectives of
e-learning systems in higher education with a particular focus on determinants of such
perceptions. Yet much of the literature on e-learning is more of a description on what the teacher
could do or has done online, while the students¶ experience of those activity goes largely
undocumented (Shirley 2001; Keller & Cernerud 2002). Most of the literature found on e-
learning is more descriptive nature and very practiced based as well as the focus is often is on the
technology or system itself rather than the theoretical contributions and implications
(Nichols,2003). Yet this would help transfer the knowledge to other tools and contexts.

This study aims at investigating the issue of technology acceptance of an e-learning system
among the Matriculation students using Web Portal.


 


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Portals are gateways to information resources¶ and different kinds of services . They are
enjoying expansive use in all sorts of organizations. From corporation to educational
institutions, organizations are striving to provide services through their web portals. There is a
general agreement in the literature on the concept of a portal ( Abuhamdieh: 2003, Murray; 1999;
Shilakes &Tylman,1998; Smith,2004). Portals are characterized by distinctive use of a number
of technologies, the most common ones being the use of pull and push technologies which allow
users to customize their access to information resources (pull) and ensure that only relevant
information is sent to them.(push).

In addition to using portals as gateways to information resources, they are used as means to store,
share, and transfer knowledge through many diverse components and modules that these systems
contains, such as e-bulletin boards , email, and chat modules (Hatt & Graham, 2004) , and virtual
communities to improve students¶ skills (Neumann et al., 2005).

The uniqueness and recent use of portal system, and the wide array of constituents they serve,
along with the different kinds of challenges they bring invites a closer examination of their
acceptance and use. Few studies have provided a detailed examination of these kinds of portals

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in term of their use acceptance; and their most used features (Carter & Belanger,2005; Li &
Wood,2005).

The general benefits of Web based learning when compared to all those shared by other types of
technology based training stem from the fact that access to the content is easy and requires no
distribution of physical materials. This means that web-based learning yields additional benefits
, among them:

3Ê À



  

. Students always have access to a
potentially huge material whether they accessing from home, from their hostel room. A
cellular modems (broadband) become more popular , students will even be able access in
a place that doesn¶t have a traditional phone line or network connection.
3Ê c



 

Almost any computer today equipped with a
modem and free browser software can access the Internet or a private intranet. The cost
of setup is relatively low.
3Ê p
  


 Students do their studying while they are connected to the
network, it is easy to implement powerful students tracking system. Unlike other
programmes like CD- ROM that requires students to print reports or save scores to disk,
Web Portal based learning enables the data to be automatically tracked on the server
computer. This information can be as simple as who has accessed the courseware and
what are their assessment scores, to detailed information including how they answered
individual test questions and how much time they spent in each material of lecture notes.
3Ê c

  
 

 
  
 

  .
With other programmes , students have access only to the information that can be held by
one CD-ROM for example. The instructional design for this type of delivery, therefore,
has been create entire modules and distinct lessons. Using Web Portal learning, there is
virtually no storage limitation and content can be held on one or more servers. The best
Web based learning is designed so that content is ³chunked´ into discrete knowledge
objects to provide greater flexibility. Students can access theses objects through pre-
defined learning paths, use skill assessments to generate personal study plans, or employ
search engine to find exact topics.
3Ê d 



. This is perhaps the single biggest benefit to Web based
learning . In today¶s fast paced business environment, training programs frequently
change. With CD-ROM for example or any other form of learning programs, the media
must be reduplicated and distributed again to all the students. With Web based learning it
is a simple matter of copying the updated files from a local developer¶s computer onto
the server computer. The next time students connects to the Web page for learning, they
will automatically have the latest version.

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Penang Matriculation College is one of 14 colleges in Malaysia which has a web based learning.
It was initiated by Our Director of Matriculation, Dato¶ Dr. Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad in the year
2006. One of the main objective in introducing this mode of study is to enhance learning and
teaching process and to fulfilling the curriculum of matriculation program in the Matriculation
College. The web-based learning environment is WebCT , which is platform independent and is
accessed using a web browser. The environment has been customized specifically for the
Penang Matriculation College which consists of Chemistry, Physic, Biology, Mathematics Units.
My study is only limited to Chemistry unit and the course home page was designed to simply
access and navigation. It features three types of material: i. learning tasks ii. Learning resources
and iii. Learning support. Learning tasks included tools for interaction to engage the learners
i.e..forums (public and private),chat rooms, and a shared whiteboard, and guidelines for activities
and problems. Learning resource include content and information upon which learning is
based,i.e lecture notes, a collection of downloadable readings used for discussion topics for the
weekly tutorials, transcripts of synchronous online tutorials, and a web portal (link to relevant
websites). Learner supports include scaffolds and structures to support learning, i.e, calendar,
guidelines for team work and for tutorial presenters, course online, and tutors¶ photos and contact
information.



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Public bulletin board, private forums , whiteboard,
requirements for reflective journals, team project,
assignments,hot potatoes Quizzes.



Lecture notes, readings, transcript of online

tutorials, web portal, e-books


 

Course outline, calendar , guidelines for team work

and tutorial presentation, tutors¶ photo, email ,
survey questionnaires and contact information.

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There is considerable evidence that today¶s students are not particularly strong in the area of
thinking and reasoning. Bransford et. al states that the µbasic problem is that traditional
instruction often fails to produce the kinds of transfer to new problem-solving situations that
most educators would like to see.´ Conventional instruction often utilizes simplified,
decontextualized examples and problems, leading to an inadequate understanding of and ability
to apply the knowledge acquired. Related, students often are not exposed to examples and

 
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problems that make knowledge¶s relevant to them. Instead, students are asked to solve problems
that cause them to wonder ³Why do I need to know this?.´.. because the information presented to
students has no relevance or meaning for them, they tend to treat new information as facts to be
memorized and recited rather than as tools to solve problems relevant to their own needs.
(Bransford et. Al 1990). This unfortunately, leads to inert knowledge-knowledge that cannot be
applied to real problems and situations.

In any learning and teaching process ,the success of imparting knowledge not only depends on
the teacher but also with the students themselves. (Jaya 2001). Among the weakness in the
present teaching mode is lack of interaction during lectures, tutorial and lab work. Portal
learning can be used as a supported tool in teaching. An-Nashmy suggested that lecturers should
choose the appropriate method of teaching in order to enhance not only understanding of the
students but also add value to our students¶ education.

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Technology Acceptance Mdel (Davis 1989) has been identified as one of the most established
models on technology acceptance, but has not been very widely applied to e-learning. This, and
the fact that acceptance and usage of technology are such crucial issue to those implementing it,
gives reasonable motivation for the application of the TAM as theoretical framework for this
investigation. The intention of this study is to investigate college students¶ acceptance of e-
learning by applying the TAM with an herewith twofold objective. First the aim of this paper is
to investigate college student¶s acceptance of a particular e-learning system, which is done by
using the three variable proposed by Davis (1989) in TAM that directly and indirectly determine
an individual¶s intention to use a system. This will provide valuable insights for college lecturers
in order to succeed with implementing and utilizing the e-learning system.

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This study is not exempt from limitations. First of all, a sample of 28 students is fairly small as
well as the study is restricted to a particular virtual learning environment (Noodles). The fact that
the population of the studied group only consists of less than 1 percent of the entire population
of the matriculation colleges., the study could be extended to other population of matriculation in
throughout the country in future study. Due to this reasons , the outcome of the research could
not be generalized to the entire population of matriculation students.

Yet, most important is the need to explore which other variables impact on a student¶s intention
to using a particular system in the context of e-learning. This could be done by testing , using or
integrating other well establish models like the theory of planned behavior (TPB) or work flow
theory as well as conducting an exploratory study of qualitative nature. The effect on use of e-
learning , as the dependent variable in TAM , was not investigated in the research model. Future

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research incorporating use of e-learning, into the research model would enable an incraseing
complete examination of the applicability of TAM.


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The growth of online instructional programs raises an interesting question for online course
developer. Should we model our online course designs after formal models of instruction or
should we incorporate innovative approaches into our online programs? If we hope to develop
powerful learning environments via the web, the answer should be clear. Instructional designers
need to look for innovative ways to should be clear. Instructional designers need to look for
innovative ways to support quality teaching and learning without succumbing to the temptation
to have online instruction become direct instantiations of traditional forms of instructions.
Online courses need to address variability in students learning styles and provide external forms
of motivation for isolated student. The challenge is also to facilitate active learning in online
courses while avoiding the tendency to provide too much information. The most difficult
challenge may be to devise ways to promote high levels of interactivity among students. Quality
online learning environments should be comprised of elements of behavioral theory (e.g. ,
positive reinforcement and repetition), cognitive learning theory (e.g, address multiple sense,
present new information in motivating ways, limit the amount of information presented and
connect new information to prior learning), and constructivism theory.

The Web Portal in Penang Matriculation College has been operating since the year 2006. This
Web program is based on three learning theories-the Behaviourism, the Cognitivism and the
Constructivism are of importance as shown in ( Cooper 1993, Dietinger 2003). Implementing e-
learning courses using portal can be seen as a complex process going beyond systematically
executing steps within an instructional design model. Among large number of critical aspects,
(McLeord 2003) suggests instructors to consider principles of learning by means of historically
grown learning theories. Therefore in the following these three theories are described in short
and implications for realizing online course are derived.

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The behaviourist school of thought , influenced by researcher like Watson, Thorndike , Pavlov,
and Skinner who postulates that ³
   
 


 



 
 
 
 (Skinner 1974). Behaviourists see the mind as a ³black box´ . in the
sense that a response to a stimulus can be observed quantitatively, totally ignoring the effect of
thought process occurring in mind. (Aktins 1993) highlights four aspects relevant for realizing
online courses with respect to the behaviourist school:

3Ê The learning material should be broken down into small instructional steps being
presented in a deductive way by means of starting with a rule , category , principle,
formula or definitions, giving positive example to reinforce understanding, and showing
negative examples to establish conceptual boundaries.


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3Ê Course designers have to define sequences of instructions using conditional or

unconditional branching to other instructional units and pre-determining choices within
the course. Normally, activities are sequences for increasing difficulty or complexity.
The sequence and pacing through the materials are usually beyond learner control.
3Ê To maximize learning efficiency, learners may be routed to miss or repeat certain
sections based on the performance on diagnostic tests, or on tests within the sequence of
learning activities. Nevertheless, the instructional designer may also allow a learner to
choose the next instruction out of a set of activities, giving the learner more control over
the learning process.
3Ê The behaviouristic approach for learning suggests to demonstrate the required operation,
procedure or skill, and to break it down into its part with appropriate explanation before
learners are expected to copy the desired behaviour. Learners are supposed ti build
proficiency from frequent review or revision with check tests at strategic points or repeat
practice with feedback. Instructional design emphasizes low error rate and the usage of
remedial loops back through material if necessary. Furthermore , reinforcement
messages should be used to maintained motivation.

Overall, behaviourists recommend a structured , deductive approach to design an online

course, so that basic concepts skills and factual information can rapidly be acquired by the
learners. Further implications on online learning can be summarized by the concept of drill
and practice, portioning materials and assessing learner¶s achievement levels, and giving
external feedback.

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Cognitivists consider learning as an internal process that involves memory, thinking,

reflection, abstraction, motivation, and meta-cognition as outlined by (Ally 2004).
Cognitivite psychology comprises the learning process from an information processing point
of view, where information is received in the sensory store through different senses and
further, transferred to the short term memory through different cognitive processes.

Furthermore the cognitive school recognizes the importance of individual differences and of
including a variety of learning strategies to accommodate those differences. Thus, different
learning styles (Kolb 1984), (Myers 1978), etc. refer to how a learner perceiver, interacts
with, and responds to learning material. In addition, cognitive styles are addressed e.g.
(Witkin et. Al.1977) describe learners¶ preferred way of processing information, which is a
person¶s typical mode of thinking remembering, or problem solving. On-line learning Web -
Portal learning have the following aspects for realizing online learning:

3Ê The teaching strategy have enhance the learning process by facilitating all sensors,
focusing the learner¶s attention by highlighting important and critical information,
reasoning each instruction, and matching the cognitive level of the learner.

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3Ê The portal design tied up to new information with existing information from long-
term memory using advanced organizers to activate exiting cognitive structure or to
incorporate the details of the lesson, providing conceptual models to enable the
learner to retrieve existing mental models, using pre-instructional questions to set
expectations and to active the learner¶s existing knowledge structure required for new
materials.
3Ê The learning content to be chunked to prevent cognitive overload. Exceeding a
number of five to nine items to learn, linear, hierarchical, or spider shaped
information maps should be provided.
3Ê Strategies requiring the learner to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate is used to
promote deep processing information and higher level learning.
3Ê Online learning materials should include activities for the different learning and
cognitive styles. Furthermore, it is necessary to provide adequate and the right type
of support for students with different types of learners:
3Ê With respect to dual-coding theory (Paivio 1990), information should be presented in
different modes to accommodate individual differences in processing and to facilitate
transfer to long term memory.
3Ê Students need to be motivated to learn by means of learning strategies addressing the
intrinsic motivation (driven from within the learner) and the extrinsic motivation
(instructor or performance driven). Therefore, methods such as Keller¶s ARCS
model ±the abbreviation for attention, relevance , confidence, and satisfaction {Keller
&Suzuki 1988} ±should be applied by the instructor.
3Ê Finally, the teaching strategy should connect learning content with different real-life
situations, so that the learners can tie up to own experiences and therefore can
develop personal meaning and contextualization of the information.

To sum up this subsection, cognitive psychology focuses on learners¶ receiving and processing
of information to transfer it to long term memory for storage .

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The constructivist school of learning suggests that learners construct personal knowledge from
the beginning experience itself as stated in [McLeod 2003]. Thus, learning can be seen as an
active process, and knowledge cannot be received from outide or from someone else.
According
to [Duffy & Cunningham 1996], learners should be allowed to construct knowledge
through instructions. Furthermore, constructivist emphasise situated learning,which sees
learning as contextual and suggests strategies promoting multi-contextual learning to make sure
that learners can apply the information broadly. By deriving implications for creating
instructions for online learning, the following statements have to be made up:

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3Ê Learning should be an active process by means of keeping learners active doing high-
level activities such as asking learners to apply information in practical situation,
facilitating personal interpretation of learning content, discussing topics within a group
and so forth.
3Ê To enforce learners constructing their own knowledge , instructors have to provide good
interactive online instructions, since the students have to take the initiative to learn and
interact with other students and the instructor and since the learning agenda is controlled
by students. [ Murphy & Cifuentes 2001]. In contrary to traditional lecture where
instructors contextualize and personalize information to meet their own needs, students
have to experience the learning content at first-hand.
3Ê As stated e.g. in [Hooper & Hannafin 1991], collaborative and cooperative learning
should be encourage to facilitate constructivist learning. Working with other learners
gives students real-life experience and allows them to use and improve their meta-
cognitive skills. When assigning learners for a groupwork, membership should be based
on the expertise level and learning style, so that team members can benefit from one
another strength.
3Ê Learners should be given control of the learning process. Besides, there should be good
form of guided discovery where learners can make their decision on learning goals, but
can also use some guidance from the instructors.
3Ê When learning on line, students should be given time and opportunity to reflect the
learning content . Embedded questions on the content can be used throughout the lesson
to encourage reflection and processing of the information.
3Ê Learning should be made meaningful and illustrative for learners by including examples
and use cases for theoretical. Besides, activities should enforce learners to apply and
personalize the learning content offered.
3Ê Instructors should focus on interactive learning activities to promote higher-level learning
and social presence and to help develop personal meaning. As learning focuses on
developing new knowledge , skills and attitudes , e-learning faces the problem that
psychomotor , affective and higher- level objectives are hard to reach within virtual
learning phases. Therefore , [Modritscher & Sindler 2005] suggest providing other ways-
such as social or interactive activities,context based learning, assessment through open-
ended questions ,etc ± to realize such didactical aspects.

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The technology acceptance model (TAM) was first created by Davis (1989), based on the theory
of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975 ) in psychology research. The TRA posits
that individual behaviour intention where behavioral intention is a function of an the
performance attitude toward the behaviour and subjective norms surrounding the performance of
the behaviour. Indeed, the TAM is the most widely applied of these theories (Venkatesh, 2000).
In other words, it states that ones behaviour and the intent to behave is a function of one¶s
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attitude towards the behaviour and their perceptions about the behaviour. Therefore, behaviour
is the function of both attitudes and beliefs. TRA is presented in Figure 1 below

 

 

    

 

  

  
  
  

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Meanwhile , TAM propose that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of technology are
predictors off user attitude towards using the technology , subsequent behavioral intentions and
actual usage. Perceived ease of use was also considered to influence perceived usefulness of
technology. Figure 2 presents original present original version of TAM (Davis,1989),
spreadsheet applications (Mathieson 1991), e-mail (Szaina 1996), web brower (Morris & Dillon
1997), telemedicine (Hu et. Al 1999), websites (Koufaris 2002), e- collaboration (Dasgupta,
Granger & Megarry 2002). In this study , the e-learning was considered a system that makes use
of Internet and web technology in accomplishing its mission of delivering information to and
interacting with the students through a computer interface.

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In TAM, 




 refers to the degree to which the user believes the technology will
improve his or her work performance, while 





refers to how effortless he or
she perceives using the technology will be. Both are considered distinctfactors influencing the
user¶s attitude towards using the technology, though perceived ease of use is also hypothesized
to influence perceived usefulness and attitude towards using the technology. Finally such
attitude towards using the technology determines the behavioral intention to use that technology.

Figure 3 depicts the research model employed in the study. It is a reduced TAM model,
excluding actual system use. The external variables constructs are also not included in the
research model as there is no immediate intention to examine antecedents to perceived
usefulness and perceived ease of use.

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Therefore, the research hypotheses based on the diagram of the TAM model in the context of the
e-learning system are:

H1 : Perceived ease of use has a significant effect on the perceived usefulness of the technology

H2: Perceived ease of use has a significant effect on attitude towards using the technology

H3 ; Perceived usefulness has a significant effect on attitude towards using the technology

H4 : Perceived usefulness has a significant effect on intention to use the technology

H5: Attitude towards using has a significant effect on intention to use the technology

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Prior to the work of Davis (1985), several studies had highlighted the importance of perceived
ease of use and perceived usefulness in predicting a person¶s behavior. An extensive review of
these studies can be found in Davis (1985). Schultz and Slevin (1975), for instance, carried out
an exploratory study, and found that perceived usefulness provided a reliable prediction for self-
predicted use of a decision model. Robey (1979) later replicated the work of Schultz and Slevin
(1975), and confirm the high correlation that existed between perceived usefulness and system
usage. On the other hand,support for the importance of perceived ease could be found in the
meta-analysis of Tornatzkjy and Klein¶s (1982) on innovation adoption. Tornatzky and Klein
studied the relationship between the characteristic of an innovation and it¶s adoption, and found
that the complexity of an innovation was one of the three factors that had the most consistent
significant relationship among a wide range of innovation types.

Bandura (1982) further, showed the importance of considering both perceived ease of use and
perceived usefulness in predicting behaviour. He suggested that in any given instance, behaviour
would be best predicted by both, sel-efficacy and, outcome judgment. Self-efficacy, which was
similar to perceived ease of use , was defined as judgment of how well one can execute courses
of action required to deal with prospective situations, whereas outcome judgment, which was
similar to perceived usefulness, was defined as the extent to which behaviour once successfully
executed is believed to be linked to valued outcomes.

Similarly Swanson¶s research (1982) provided evidence that perceived ease of use and perceived
usefulness were both important behavioral determinants. Swanson hypothesized that potential
users will select and use information reports based on a tradeoff between perceived information
quality and associated cost of access. In Swanson¶s work, information quality was similar to
perceived usefulness, whereas associated cost of access was found to be similar to perceived ease
of use.

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Several authors have used TAM in an educational settings (Saade & Gailoway 2005; Roca et .al.
20063
Landry et . al 2006) and Saade & Galloway (2005) made use of TAM to measure
student¶s acceptance of web-based e-learning tools. In both studies TAM was found to perform
well with the main hypotheses being supported and a total variance in usage intentions explained
with a little less than 40% (Saade & Galloway 2005). Landry.et.al. (2006) found usage to be
determined by the two TAM construct perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness and could
furthermore find support for the two dimensions suggested for perceived usefulness, namely
perceived effectiveness and perceived importance . The relationship between university
students¶ perceptions of ease of use and usage of Blackboard elements was fully supported but
varied at different level. As originally hypothesized by Davis (1989); Laundry¶s et.al (2006)
findings suggest that if students perceive Blackboard to be easy to use, they would also perceive

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Blackboard to be useful. This could be confirmed also by Saade & Galloway (2005).
Usefulness turned out to be the strongest determinant of usage intentions (Laudry .et. al).

In order to predict a user¶s acceptance behaviour of e-learning Liu.et.al. (2005) developed a

theoretical framework to explain students intention to a e-learning system using TAM and flow
theory. Additional variables that were investigated as different presentation types (Text ,audio
Audio-video, Text-Audio-video) and concentration. Liu . et. Al (2005) found the difference in
presentation types as well as concentration to have a significant impact on usage intentions.

Roca.et.al.(2006) investigate student¶s intention to continue using an e-learning system. As the

focus is on continued use, a satisfaction construct is proposed. Roca. et.al (2006) suggested that
the impact of the two TAM variables perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use is mediated
by the satisfaction. By making use of TPB (including behavioral control and subjective norm) as
well as expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT) , Roca et .al (2006) break down the component
perceived performance into perceived quality and perceived usability and further propose the
construct information quality, confirmation, service quality , system quantity and cognitive
absorption as antecedents of satisfaction. Roca.et.al (2006) found support for their proposed
model, yet again, perceived usefulness turned out to be the strongest determinant.

Several studies have examined TAM as a model to explain how people adopt and use e-learning.
Selim (2003) stated that there was a need to investigate TAM with web-learning. He put
forward the course website acceptance model (CWAM) and tested the relationship among
perceived ease of use and intention to use with university students using the structural equation
modeling technique of the LISREL program. He concluded that the model is fit the collected
data and that the usefulness and ease of use turned out to be good determinants of the acceptance
and use of a course website as an effective and efficient learning technology. Perceived
usefulness can be defined as the extent to which a university student believe using e-learning will
boost his or her learning. Meanwhile perceived ease of use is defined as the extent to which one
believes using e-learning will be free of cognitive effort. In this study, e-learning refers to pure,
web-based, asynchronous learning through an Internet site operated by the university. It is also
supported by the learning management system (LMS) of the university.

Lee, Cheung & Chen (2005) did similar research with the LISREL program to investigate
university student¶s adoption behavior towards an Internet ±based learning medium (ILM)
introducing TAM, but they integrated TAM with motivational theory. They included perceived
enjoyment as an intrinsic motivator in addition to perceived usefulness and perceived case of use
in to the TAM. According to their results, perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment had an
impact on both students¶ attitude toward and intention to use ILM. Howeve, perceived ease of
use was found to be unrelated to attitude. Meanwhile Pituch and Lee (2006) added system and
learner characteristics as external variable that were hypothesized to impact perceived
usefulness, perceived ease of use and use of an e-learning system. After conducting a structural

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equation modeling technique with LISREL, they concluded that systems characteristic were
important determinants to perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and use of an e-learning
system, and that the theoretical model based on TAM was well supported. Saade, Nebebe, and
Tan (2007) also insisted that university students¶ participation and involvement were important
to successful e-learning systems and therefore students¶ acceptance behavior should be assessed.
They suggested that TAM was a solid theoretical model where its validity can extend to the
multimedia and e-learning context.

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The purpose of the study is to investigate college students¶ acceptance of e-learning by applying
the TAM . First the aim of this paper is to investigate college student¶s acceptance of a
particular e-learning system, which is done by using the three variable proposed by Davis (1989)
in TAM that directly and indirectly determine an individual¶s intention to use a system. This will
provide valuable insights for college lecturers in order to succeed with implementing and
utilizing the e-learning system.

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Matriculation students at the Penang Matriculation College have access to a customized version
of the open source platform called Moodle. It can be served by intranet and can be assess from
outside vicinity of the matriculation college. The Portal has 12 subjects that has been taught in
the college and each topics are divided into subtopic according to each semester. In each portal
the students have access to lecture notes, interactive quizzes, forum, chatiing,e-mail,e-book ,link
resource and etc.

The design of this research is quantitative research survey method. This study included samples
from the same practicum group consists of physical students taking the same course (SK017)
delivered by the same lecturer with the same characteristics and delivery design. Sample of
students from 2010/2011 intake, 2000 respondents were chosen based on the likelihood of their
current or potential involvement with e-learning. As most of the items were obtained directly
from the literature, the validity of the instrument was re-evaluated to ensure applicability.
Experts from Information technology department as well as 30 students evaluated the
questionnaire to ensure face and content validity of the instrument. The pre-testing led to some
small modification of the questionnaire.

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Research instrument used in this survey is a on-line questionnaire consist of 18 questions using a
five-point Likert scale with anchors ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree and were e-
mail to the respondents through portal. The survey divided to two parts and the first part inquired
about the demographic variables of the participants such as sex, faculty, availability of laptops,
origin, family¶s income. The second part inquired about the participant use of portal system. The
items were translated to Malay Language by the senior lecturers of the college and were
evaluated by the head of unit from Information Department. These items were adapted from
various source , as indicated in Table 1

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List of constructs and corresponding items.

 

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51
ITU1 I use portal whenever appropriate for school work

ITU2 I use portal frequently for school work

ITU3 I use portal whenever possible for school work

ITU4 I use portal a lot for school work




01
ATT1 Using portal is a good idea

ATT2 Using portal is unpleasant

ATT3 Using portal is beneficial for my school work
%
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PEOU1
0%Ã*51


PEOU2

PEOU3

PEOU4

PEOU5

PEOU6
Using portal is easy for me
It was easy for me to become skillful at using portal
It was easy for me to become skilful at using portal
I find portal to be flexible to interact with
I find it easy to get information I want from portal
My interaction with portal is clear and
understandable
%
5
0%51
PU1

PU2

PU3

PU4

PU5

PU6
Using portal improves my school work
performances
Using portal enables me to accomplish my school
work more quickly
Using portal increases my productivity in doing
school work
Using portal enhance my effectiveness in doing
school work.
I find portal useful in doing my school work
Using portal makes it easier to do school work

The students who completed the questionnaires did so voluntarily with no reimbursement for
their participation. Their use of portal was motivated with the perception of better performance
in their examination. In the effect of increasing the participation of the samples, the lecturer did
the following.

i.Ê Introduce and reminded the student about using portal for references.
ii.Ê Weekly mail to inform and motivate the students.
iii.Ê Supervising the monitor of the practicum group

The survey was put on the web portal for easy access. Users were asked to log on to the surveys
site and answer the survey questions, which takes about 5 to 7 minutes to answer. The survey has
a greeting section that instructed the respondent on how to answer the survey. When the
respondent finished answering the survey, they clicked on the submit button of the page, after

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which they are taken to a thank you message that contained a link to an email address so that
respondents could communicate any comments or concerns they may have had while responding
to the survey. The participant needs to respond to the survey questionnaire within three weeks.

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This study uses structural equation modeling (Bollen,1989; Joreskog & Sorbom, 1996) to test
the theoretical model. The chi-square goodness ±of-fit test is the traditional criterion employed
to determine acceptance or rejection of the hypothesized model. A good fit is represented by a
nonsignificant chi-square (i.e the difference between the theoretical and empirical model,
between expected and observed relationship, can be attributed to chance alone). However, ch-
square is strongly affected by sample size and difficult to interpret (Joreskog & Sorbom ,1998).
Thus, researchers are urged to use multiple criteria. The following criteria were used to evaluate
how well the proposed model fits the observed correlation matrix (Bentler, 1988):

i. chi-square statics (non-significant)

ii. the goodness of fit index (GFI) and the adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) close to 1.00

iii. the Bentler-Bonett Normed Fit Index (NFI greater then 0.90

iv. the Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI greater than 0.90)

v. the Comparative Fit Index (CFI grater then 0.90) and

vi. the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA, less than 0.05)

Additionally, this study used the ratio of chi-square to degree of freedom and the chi-square
difference test to test the hypothesized model. When the ratio of chi-square to degree of freedom
is less than 5, it is conventionally accepted as good fit (Wheaton, Muthen, Alwin & Summers.
1977).

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