The Effects of Basic Psychological Needs, Task–Technology Fit, and Student Engagement on MOOC Learners’ Continuance Intention to Use

Abstract

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) continue to remain in the spotlight as a promising future education environment. However, more than 80% of learners stop learning before attending one-third of the course. Despite a continuous spread of MOOC and high dropout rate, little has examined the antecedent factors that influence student engagement in technology enhanced MOOC learning environment from the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) model. The purpose of this study was to empirically identify the effects of individuals’ basic psychological needs and the task–technology fit on MOOC learners’ continuance intention to use, as well as the mediating effect of student engagement in MOOCs. Based on survey data from 201 Korean-MOOC learners, structural equation modeling was employed to assess the model. The findings are as follows: The basic psychological needs in MOOCs did not directly affect continuance intention to use, but did affect student engagement; the task–technology fit of MOOCs directly affected continuance intention to use and student engagement; and student engagement in MOOCs mediated between the basic psychological needs and task–technology fit, and continuance intention to use. It directly affected continuance intention to use. Implications were suggested for designing courses in MOOCs to increase student engagement for continuance intention to use.