Technology Acceptance Factors and Student Retention in Online Courses

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between factors of technology acceptance and retention of students in online courses. They included, the expectation of performance, hedonic motivation, self-efficacy, social influence, system quality, information quality and intention to continue, belonging to the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and the Information Systems Success Factors. We studied 231 students of free courses offered online by a public educational institution. The results show that there is a definite and statistically significant relationship between student retention and expectation factors, hedonic motivation and information quality. The factors self-efficacy, social influence and quality of the system did not present significant relationship with retention, contrasting with the assumptions advocated in some of the empirical studies. The results contribute to the understanding that the retention of students in online courses can be obtained mainly from investments in the quality of content made available to students.