Advance Acceptance Status Model for E-learning Based on University Academics and Students

E-learning provides students with the possibility of accessing, repeating, and using learning materials wherever and whenever they want. The philosophy of e-learning is not to replace the conventional learning process; it instead provides a new method and approach that offers opportunities for much faster delivery of knowledge. Teachers and students are the most significant actors in the process of educational transformation, and technology acceptance is measured by positive reactions from users based on their utilisation of technology to support those assignments designed for such purposes. In higher education institutions in Iraq, the use of e-learning has become compulsory and there is thus a critical need to study student and teacher behaviours in response to this. Accordingly, this paper undertakes an investigation based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine academics' and students' acceptance of and adoption of e-learning in university education in their roles as universities' main actors. This paper focuses on teachers and students with no background in ICT, investigating their acceptance of e-learning as a learning method. A seven-point Likert scale questionnaire was systematically developed, validated, and used as a data collection instrument with 450 students and 75 university lecturers from two separate colleges. A clustering sampling method was used in the sampling selection process, and several hypotheses were proposed and tested via the paired T-test. The paper's outcomes can be classified into three categories: it helps to determine to what extent e-learning is accepted by non-expert users; it provides evidence of new factors that influence application of e-learning, extending the TAM model; and, finally, it provides meaningful recommendations for higher education institutions to utilise before adopting e-learning to maximise acceptance. In particular, the results indicate that academics' and students' intention to use e-learning is positively influenced by both perceived usefulness and perceived ease to use.