A Study of the Relationship between Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Institutional Objectives and Intent to Use Peanut Butter Swirl Student Success Software Using the ioTAM Theoretical Framework

Abstract

CCX, a small, rural community college in the United States began offering a flexible, online, competency-based educational delivery model in some of its educational programs in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 school year. The new offering provided students a great deal of flexibility, but student success rates decreased. The college expressed an interest in improving the processes surrounding student support in the new format in an effort to increase success rates. In response, the researcher developed a prototype student success tool for college staff to test and provide feedback on utilizing the researcher-developed Institutional Objective Technology Acceptance Model (ioTAM) framework. An email was sent out to 48 CCX staff members to test the prototype software and complete a survey related to their experience. The survey measured the participant’s perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived belief that the software could benefit an institutional objective (IO), which in this case was increase student success, and their behavioral intention to use the software (BI). The survey had 31 valid responses. Correlational analysis was performed on survey responses and the data showed a positive correlation amongst all variables. The results suggest that participants believe Peanut Butter Swirl student success software would positively benefit their new educational offering and help to increase student success rates. The study also demonstrates a working example of the researcher-developed ioTAM framework, which may lead to more robust technology selection decisions.