Student Use of the Internet: an extension of TAM in technical and vocational institutions in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

In the educational setting, the Internet is profiteering among academics and students. In fact, this has changed the functioning of the educational establishments. However, the success of use of the Internet is largely dependent upon the user’s behaviour that in turn affects their attitudes. Even when the formidable opportunities exist for the deployment of technology, adverse attitude can inhibit the use. Keeping this in view, survey of 266 students of four technical and vocational colleges was conducted to study the attitudes of the students toward the use of the Internet. The present study develop a normative model by using Davis’s Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and validates two specific attitudinal variables; perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use that are hypothesized to be fundamental determinants of the attitude that in turn predict the students’ use of the Internet. By adding external variables such as; demographics, task characteristics, computer exposure, and institutional support further test the parsimony of the model. A Structural Equation Modelling technique is used to validate the model. The study has confirmed that majority of the students (85%) are using the Internet. In the final model the external variables do contribute towards both of belief parts: perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness that further affects the attitude of the students in predicting the Internet usage.