Studying the adoption and learning processes of online interactivity

Acknowledging the general difficulty of new e-learning pedagogical approaches to achieve wide acceptance and use, the study examined the adoption of a proposed online interactive learning environment by a class of MBA students. To this end, a web-based, case-based constructivist learning environment was developed for the purposes of the study embedding interactivity. The class students were given the choice to develop their group work using the proposed online environment, or develop it through more traditional group collaboration means. A wide array of possible factors influencing the student adoption decision was considered by the study (e.g. perceived attributes of the proposed environment, student characteristics, peer student actions and attitudes, change facilitator interventions). The obtained results led to the development of a model depicting the observed influencing factors along with their relative importance. A notable finding of the study is the high influence of change facilitator actions, making the whole adoption phenomenon observed more instrumentalist in nature.