Course Website Usage: Does Prior Experience Matter?

Course websites have been used to enhance the delivery of learning materials that is not bounded by time and space. Although the usage of course websites are common in the West, but in a developing country like Malaysia, it is not the norm but the exception. This research builds on previous research done in Malaysian by looking at the moderating role of prior experience in explaining usage of an Internet course website. Data was collected from second year business management students who are required to use the course website for their business research methods class. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) developed by Davis (I) was used as the model for investigating the usage of the course website. TAM proposes that perceived usefulness (PU) and per:ceived ease of use (PEU) are key determinants of usage of a particular technology or system. This research further extends the relationship to include prior experience as a moderator in this relationship. The regression analysis results indicate that the two constructs were able to explain 47.8% of the variation in the usage of the course website. Perceived usefulness (13 = 0.45, p<O,Ol) was the more influential predictor of usage with perceived ease of use (13 = 0.34, p<O.Ol) also significant. Perceived ease ofuse was also positively related to perceived usefulness ofthe course website. The findings of this study however did not support the moderating role on prior experience. The reasons for the contradiction are further explored,