The Impact of e-Learning Quality on Student Satisfaction and Continuance Usage Intentions during COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected people’s lives, changing the ways of working, living, playing, and learning. With this pandemic, classroom learning has been suspended due to infection concerns, and e-learning has emerged, becoming an important mechanism for educational institutions to continue their teaching and learning activities. However, there have been only a few empirical studies providing insight into the factors affecting students’ e-learning satisfaction and usage behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak. Thus, this study aims to investigate the impact of e-learning quality on student satisfaction and continuance usage intentions among higher education students in Thailand during the pandemic. Based on empirical research with 185 higher education students, the results revealed that e-learning quality was a second-order construct comprised of three elements, namely, course content and design, administrative and technical support, and instructor and learner characteristics. Course content and design was the most important dimension of overall e-learning quality. Furthermore, overall e-learning quality had a significant positive impact on student satisfaction and continuance usage intentions toward e-learning platforms. Mediation analysis indicated that student satisfaction partly mediated the relationship between e-learning quality and continuance usage intentions.