Vietnamese students’ acceptance of using video conferencing tools in distance learning in Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has strongly influenced teaching and learning in Vietnam’s higher education institutions. Social distancing – the health care practice of increasing the physical space between people to avoid spreading illness due to COVID-19 has required schools to employ distance learning. As such, video conferencing tools (VCTs) have been used nationwide to ensure effective responses to the requirement. Although teaching and learning with VCTs have been proven effective by many researchers, it is not clear what benefits and challenges they bring to higher education in Vietnam, especially with respect to students’ acceptance to the classroom uses of technology in the time of unexpected events. This study aims to address this gap by examining external factors that affected students’ acceptance of VCTs during the COVID pandemic. Data were collected online from university students between April 14, 2020 and April 23, 2020. After this period, the research group received 294 records, in which 227 were analyzed using an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The result indicated that external factors such as subject norm and computer playfulness had a significant impact on most TAM constructs. Furthermore, output quality was found to have a positive influence on students’ perceived usefulness in the acceptance of VCTs in distance learning.