Antecedents of student MOOC revisit intention: Moderation effect of course difficulty

• Published in: International journal of information management Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 84 - 91
• Main Authors: Huang, Liqiang, Zhang, Jie, Liu, Yuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2017; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: CAI; Computer assisted instruction; Content vividness; Course difficulty; Curricula; Distance learning; Intention to revisit; MOOC interactivity; Online instruction; Student retention; Students; Teacher subject knowledge; Teachers; Teacher subject knowledge; MOOC interactivity; Course difficulty; Content vividness; Intention to revisit
• ISSN: 0268-4012; 1873-4707
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2016.12.002

•The relationship between course content vividness and intention to revisit are positively moderated by the course difficulty.•The relationship between teacher subject knowledge and intention to revisit are negatively moderated by the course difficulty.•The relationship between MOOC interactivity and intention to revisit is not significantly moderated by the course difficulty. In response to the research gap in the current literature regarding the low student retention of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), this study uses task-technology fit theory to understand how MOOCs’ technological factors in three dimensions (i.e., course vividness, teacher subject knowledge, and interactivity) influence students’ revisiting of MOOCs. Going deeper, this study also takes course difficulty into consideration and investigates the interactive effects of course difficulty on the main factors identified above. The empirical results show that the vividness of course content, teacher subject knowledge, and MOOC interactivity can positively affect students’ intention to revisit MOOCs. However, the relationships between the three dimensional factors and student intention to revisit are affected in different ways by course difficulty. Specifically, the findings show that course difficulty negatively moderates the relationship between course content vividness and students’ intention to revisit, and positively moderates the relationship between teacher subject knowledge and students’ intention to revisit. In addition, course difficulty typically does not have a significant influence on the relationship between technology interactivity and students’ intention to revisit. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.