Abstract

Organizations today allocate a significant amount of their budget in information technologies dedicated to improve their learning/training processes capabilities. While there has been a wealth of empirical research on technology-mediated learning/training, most tend to focus on instrumental beliefs as drivers of individual intention toward information technologies. However, in recent years, more and more researchers advocate the influence of individuals' holistic experience with the learning systems and associated intrinsic motivational drivers on intentions and acceptance. The present study is motivated by the need for a better understanding of cognitive absorption as an intrinsic motivational driver to use technology-mediated learning systems. To that effect, the present study proposes an integrated research model based on the theory or reasoned action, theory of planned behavior and the technology acceptance model, to empirically investigate the impact of cognitive absorption on the belief-intention structure of individuals' behavior. A web-survey was administered to 105 students after they have used a multimedia learning environment that aimed to help them study for an online course. Results suggest that individual technology acceptance behavior is a function of their holistic experience with the technology and cognitive perceptions formed by rational assessments and these impacts are mediated by individuals' attitude toward the technology. The study offers a motivation perspective to the technology adoption research, and provides empirical support on predictors of individual behavior towards the use of multimedia learning systems in higher education. Findings provide insight to the implementation of multimedia learning and information system design