User Acceptance and Usage of E-learning Technologies: A Theoretical Review

The quest for higher education has prompted learning institutions to adopt e-learning technologies around the world. To support learning, institutions have shifted from the traditional methods of content delivery and started to use of information technology tools and applications such as learning management systems. E-learning technologies are tools and facilities that enable instructors and learners to interact remotely. Instructors and learners acceptance affects their usage and this critical for successful implementation of e-learning technologies. The objective this paper is to review theoretical literature on learners and instructors acceptance and use of e-learning technologies using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Usage of Technology (UTAUT), to establish the factors that influence user acceptance and usage of information communications technology and to provide further insight of the issues encompassing acceptance of e-learning technologies by learners and lecturers. This study reveals that despite TAM being a much referred model for predicting technology acceptance factors and usage, the theory in not powerful enough. The paper also established that most of researchers referred to UTAUT in their articles considering their end goal was to back a contention instead of utilizing the theory. Others that reported the utilization of UTAUT really employed.