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Factors That Influence Online Learners' Intent To Continue In An Online Graduate Program, Rui-Ting Huang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence online learners’ intent to continue. This study gathered the data from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Nicholls State University. The total number of participants was n=122. The findings in this study revealed a positive relationship between online learners’ perceived usefulness and intent to continue (r=.37, p< 0.01), a positive relationship between online learners’ perceived ease of use and intent to continue (r=.44, p< 0.01), a positive relationship between online learners’ perceived flexibility and intent to continue (r=.72, p< 0.01), a positive relationship between online learners’ perceived learner-instructor interaction and intent to continue (r=.52, p< 0.01), and a positive relationship between online learners’ satisfaction and intent to continue (r=.84, p< 0.01). Moreover, the findings showed a negative relationship between online learners’ perceived learner-learner interaction and intent to continue (r= -.27, p< 0.01). Although the learner-learner interaction questionnaire used negative description, it still indicated a positive relationship between perceived learner-learner interaction and online learners’ intent to continue. The Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) revealed that the perceived flexibility and satisfaction had positive influence on the online learners’ intent to continue, and the value of R2 further revealed that the two predictor variables explained 76.4 % of the variance in the online learners’ intent to continue.