Factors Affecting Postgraduate Student’s Intention in Using an E-examination System During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Application of UTAUT Model

Abstract

The emergence of COVID-19 has compelled higher educational institutions across the globe to embrace remote learning as a medium of teaching. Furthermore, as a method of evaluation e-exam systems are widely used at present. Considering the e-exam systems, prior research has mainly focused on technological advancements and how to overcome technological barriers in using e-exam systems. Behavioral aspects of students have been taken into consideration in this study, which focuses on identifying the factors affecting postgraduate student’s intention in using the e-examination system during the Covid-19 pandemic. To accomplish this objective modified UTAUT model was used and the required data was collected from 167 postgraduates in Sri Lankan state universities chosen through the purposive sampling method. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among the sample and the analysis was done using Smart PLS-SEM and SPSS software. The findings revealed that except for social influence and facilitating conditions, all the other variables have a significant impact on behavioral intention to use e-exam systems, and considering the mediating effect of performance expectancy and effort expectancy, the relationships between computer anxiety and behavioral intention and fear of infectious diseases and behavioral intention are mediated by the performance expectancy and effort expectancy. In terms of theoretical implications, this study fills the existing gap in the literature about the student’s perspective on using an e-exam system, and from the managerial point of view, the insights of this enhancing the performance, habit, and reducing the effort of using an e-exam system the university students can be adapted to use e-exam systems even in future.