British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 52 No 2 2021 619–637

doi:10.1111/bjet.13046

Understanding university students’ behavioral intention to use

Edmodo through the lens of an extended technology acceptance
model

Erhan Unal and Ahmet Murat Uzun

Erhan Unal Ph.D., is a research assistant at the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology in
Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey. He received his PhD degree in Computer Education and Instructional Technology
from Gazi University, in Turkey. His research interests are instructional design, collaborative technologies and
constructivist teaching and learning methods. Ahmet Murat Uzun Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Department
of Educational Sciences at Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Education and
Instructional Technology from Middle East Technical University, in Turkey. His research interests include instructional
design, cognitive load theory, multimedia learning, ICT in education, and ICT ethics. Address for correspondence: Erhan
Unal, Faculty of Education, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, 03200, Turkey. Email: [email protected]

Abstract
Educational social network sites have many uses in the field of education. The present
paper aims to determine factors influencing students’ behavioral intention to use a
popular educational social network site, Edmodo. Using an extension of the technology
acceptance model, we analyzed quantitative responses of 218 university students,
registered in an Edmodo supported course. Data were analyzed through partial
least squares structural equation modeling. Results highlighted that intention was
significantly predicted by its antecedents. More specifically, the attitude was the most
important factor, whilst perceived usefulness had a moderate impact on predicting
intention. Perceived ease of use predicted perceived usefulness directly and also it
influenced intention indirectly through attitude. External antecedents of perceived
usefulness and perceived ease of use were all significant. Discussion and implications
were drawn based on the results.
Key words: Edmodo, educational social network sites, learning management sys-
tems, structural equation modeling, technology acceptance model

Introduction
Web 2.0 technologies have altered the manner people use the Internet. One acknowledged web
2.0 tool used in education is social network sites (SNSs). In general, SNSs provide users to create
a profile in the platform, communicate, and share information with other people easily (Basak &
Calisir, 2015; Doğan & Gülbahar, 2018). With these potentials, SNSs enable new forms of learn-
ing through collaboration and social learning and thus are regarded to have positive contribu-
tions to the educational outcomes (Arteaga Sánchez, Cortijo, & Javed, 2019; Cao, Ajjan, & Hong,
2013). However, SNSs have been criticized for lacking some characteristics of learning manage-
ment systems (LMSs) such as a library, assignment, scoring, schedule, and quiz (Durak, 2017).
Furthermore, privacy invasions in SNSs are another concern for students (Cao et al., 2013). For
these reasons, “educational SNSs,” having educational affordances of both SNSs and LMSs, have
been started to be used in recent years. One of the most used SNSs in education is Edmodo, which
is a free platform that is used by instructors, students, and also by parents. Supporting many
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Practitioner Notes
What is already known about this topic
• Understanding why users accept or reject a particular information system is a com-
mon research area.
• Technology acceptance model (TAM) is used to explain individuals’ acceptance and
adoption of different technologies.
• Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have been used to enrich learning. However, the adop-
tion of educational SNS studies is limited.
What this paper adds
• This study is one of the first attempts for employing extended TAM that scrutinizes fac-
tors influencing university students’ intention to use Edmodo as an educational SNS
and a learning management system (LMS) in teaching and learning environments.
• External antecedents included in the model (subjective norms, output quality, percep-
tions of external control, perceived enjoyment, technological complexity, and self-
efficacy) significantly predicted university students’ intention to use Edmodo as an
educational SNS and LMS.
• Major factors driving the intention to use Edmodo were attitude and perceived usefulness.
Implications for practice and/or policy
• Considering that the attitude was found to have the strongest influence on the inten-
tion to use Edmodo, instructors may attach prominent importance to foster students’
positive attitudes toward Edmodo use.
• Instructors may design virtual learning environments with collaborative activities on
SNS to increase students’ perceived usefulness.
• Designers and developers of an educational SNS should design interfaces that should
be not only less complex but also more enjoyable.

languages, instructors can create and organize lessons, share course materials, make announce-
ments, and initiate discussions through this platform. It provides a safe environment for discus-
sion, feedback, collaboration, and customized learning thanks to SNS facilities (Durak, 2017;
Yunkul & Cankaya, 2017). In addition, it offers to create assignments and quizzes, using course
planning tools, creating and managing course related libraries by uploading videos, pictures,
documents, and presentations (Doğan, Demir, & Ülkü, 2018; Durak, 2017). Therefore, it can be
considered that Edmodo is a secure, social learning environment for managing learning activi-
ties, assignments, and group works (Gan, Menkhoff, & Smith, 2015).
An important area in the field of information technology is investigating users’ adoption, accep-
tance, or rejection of a particular system (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003). Although
Edmodo has been recognized as a promising learning tool, the success of the system depends on
how it is embraced by the users. Research was conducted on the acceptance/adoption of differ-
ent systems including students’ SNS adoption (Akman & Turhan, 2017; Choi & Chung, 2013),
Facebook acceptance (Arteaga Sánchez et al., 2019; Basak & Calisir, 2015; Chang, Hung, Cheng,
& Wu, 2015) or other LMS adoption (Joo, Kim, & Kim, 2016; Saroia & Gao, 2019). However,
only a few studies have focused on factors affecting students’ adoption of Edmodo (Yildiz-Durak,
2019; Zain, Hanafi, Don, Yaakob, & Sailin, 2019). With the increasing educational potentials of
Edmodo for teaching and learning, exploring students’ intention to use Edmodo is of significant
importance. Given this rationale, the aim of this study is then to predict factors that influence
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students’ behavioral intentions to adopt Edmodo. To that aim, the extended technology accep-
tance model (TAM) was used as a theoretical framework.

Problem statement
In recent years, Edmodo has prompted researchers’ attention and an increasing trend of research
on this topic has emerged. For example, in a study, Edmodo was used to facilitate m-learning
activities and it was found that Edmodo supported collaboration and allowed learning anywhere
and anytime (Oyelere, Paliktzoglou, & Suhonen, 2016). Another study observed that Edmodo
and SNS use were advantageous in terms of communicating and sharing course materials and
providing useful tools to students (Durak, 2017). Ma’azi and Janfeshan (2018) found that using
Edmodo developed intermediate EFL learners’ writing skills and attitudes.
Despite this interest, research mostly concentrated on utilizing Edmodo to support learning and
exploring its effect on different educational outputs (eg, Alqahtani, 2019; Wendt & Rockinson-
Szapkiw, 2014) and perceptions of the participants (eg, Al-Said, 2015; Beyatli, Altinay, & Altinay,
2018). Considering the fact that the eventual success of a system depends on its continued use
(Bhattacherjee, 2001b), it could be postulated that research is needed on how the users perceive
Edmodo and whether they intend to adopt it. However, only a few studies have addressed this issue
(eg, Yildiz-Durak, 2019; Zain et al., 2019). To ensure this educational SNS is an effective instruc-
tional technology, first, it needs to be accepted by the students. An investigation is, therefore, required
to both determine and better understand the factors that contribute to student acceptance or rejec-
tion of Edmodo. Determining these factors is taught to help instructors to benefit from such tools
and their LMS selection. Furthermore, the developers of Edmodo can review and improve the system
based on the outputs of this study. As a final contribution, to the best of our knowledge, there is
no research examining factors affecting Edmodo usage intention as an SNS and LMS from the lens
of extended TAM. On the other side, although TAM is the robust model in the acceptance studies
(King & He, 2006), it was criticized as being too parsimonious (Teo, Huang, & Hoi, 2018). Moreover,
employing TAM without external factors cannot provide specific views about the system (Mathieson,
1991). In order to overcome this issue, several studies used extended TAM to get good explanatory
power and explained total variance as cited by Abdullah and Ward (2016). Thus, this study can pro-
vide a viewpoint for students’ intention to use Edmodo through the lens of extended TAM.

Theoretical framework and the model

TAM and the importance of the model
Researchers have studied the acceptance behavior of users through different intention models
(Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989), one of which is TAM. TAM is first introduced by Davis (1989)
and adapted from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). TAM is used to
explain and predict any computer related behavior intention, while TRA is used to explain any
human behavior (Davis et al., 1989). TAM was used and empirically validated in different con-
texts such as acceptance of e-learning (Gamble, 2018; Lee, Hsieh, & Chen, 2013), m-learning
(Hao, Dennen, & Mei, 2017; Mac Callum, Jeffrey, & Kinshuk, 2014), web 2.0 technologies and
ICT collaborative tools (Cheung & Vogel, 2013; Kwok & Yang, 2017).
TAM consists of four variables: Perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), attitude
(ATT), and behavioral intention (BI) (Davis, 1989). However, in some cases, external factors
can be incorporated into the model to increase the predictive validity of the model. Many factors
affecting students’ intention to use Edmodo can be investigated in this way. Selecting the exter-
nal variables depends on the context such as technology, users, and area of use (Iqbal & Ahmed
Bhatti, 2015). We considered course activities, students’ physiological statements and abilities,
and social environment when using Edmodo. Through this regard, we extended the model by
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adding external variables in addition to ordinary TAM constructs. We borrowed subjective norms
and output quality as affecting PU as well as perceptions of external control, perceived enjoy-
ment, technological complexity and self-efficacy as affecting PEOU from other acceptance models
such as TAM2, TAM3, and related literature.
PU is defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would
enhance his/ her job performance,” and PEOU is defined as “the degree to which a person believes
that using a particular system would be free of physical and mental effort” (Davis, 1989, p.
320). ATT is defined as an individual’s positive or negative feelings about performing the behav-
ior (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). According to this model, PU and PEOU directly predict ATT. In
addition, PU and ATT have direct effects on BI. Additionally, PEOU is the predictor of PU. In this
research context, if students believe that the use of Edmodo in their learning process is beneficial,
their attitudes and intentions would be higher. Furthermore, when students perceive Edmodo
as easy to use, this positively affects their PU and ATT directly and BI indirectly through ATT.
These relationships were corroborated by previous studies (Chang et al., 2015; Davis et al., 1989).
Hence, in the current study, it is hypothesized that:
H1: PU has a positive effect on BI to use Edmodo.
H2: PU has a positive effect on ATT toward Edmodo.
H3: PEOU has a positive effect on ATT toward Edmodo.
H4: PEOU has a positive effect on PU.
H5: ATT toward Edmodo has a positive effect on BI to use Edmodo.

Subjective norms (SN), which are defined as “an individual’s perception that most people who are
important to her think she should (or should not) perform a particular behavior” (Fishbein & Ajzen,
1975, p. 302) are one of the direct determinants of PU (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008). In this study, stu-
dents’ perceptions toward Edmodo are shaped by significant others such as peers, instructors, and
university administrators. For example, referring to its Facebook-like environment and other affor-
dances, significant others can encourage students to use Edmodo, and thusly students may con-
sider Edmodo as a beneficial tool for their learning. (ie, perceived usefulness). In the literature, this
relationship is confirmed in different contexts such as LMS acceptance (Teo, Zhou, Fan, & Huang,
2019), acceptance of web 2.0 technologies (Teo, Sang, Mei, & Hoi, 2019), and technology accep-
tance of students (Teo, 2010). Accordingly, the following hypothesis is formulated:
H6: SN has a positive effect on PU.

Output quality (OUT) is defined as the degree of an individual’s perception of how well the system per-
forms the tasks (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). Learning environments’ contribution to have enhanced
effectiveness and productivity in learning is related to the OUT (Teo, Zhou, et al., 2019). In the current
study, students’ perception that Edmodo is capable of performing the tasks in a good manner may af-
fect their PU. Research showed that Edmodo fosters students’ interest and learning, as it provides mul-
tiple resources and more effective interaction with enhanced participation (Ateş Çobanoğlu, 2018),
which may influence their OUT perception. Previous studies validated the link between OUT and PU
(Teo, Zhou, et al., 2019; Venkatesh & Bala, 2008). Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H7: OUT has a positive effect on PU.

Perceptions of external control (PEC) or facilitating conditions is defined as “the degree to which
an individual believes that organizational and technical resources exist to support the use of the
system” (Venkatesh et al., 2003, p. 453). Students’ perceptions of PEC are considered to be en-
ablers or barriers when using the system (Teo, 2010), which can be organizational and technical
supports and resources to facilitate the use of a system (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008). In the current
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 Understanding university students’ behavioral intention to use Edmodo    623

study, features or practices that are linked with PEC are as follows: Supporting multilanguage,
Edmodo has a help center available to assist users. Besides, students can send messages to their
instructors, initiate a discussion related to a topic in case they need help. Furthermore, in the
current study, students received an orientation at the first meeting of the class that provided an
overview of the student panel. Consequently, the following hypothesis is formed:
H8: PEC has a positive effect on PEOU.

Perceived enjoyment (PE) is defined as “the extent to which the activity of using a specific system
is perceived to be enjoyable in its own right, aside from any performance consequences resulting
from system use” (Venkatesh, 2000, p. 351). PE emphasizes the pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoy-
ment related to system use. If students enjoy using the system, they might perceive the system as
easy to use. Therefore, PE can be thought of as a motivation-oriented construct that influences
PEOU (Venkatesh, 2000). Students find SNSs more enjoyable compared to traditional learning as
they feel more relaxed and willing to participate (Hamid, Waycott, Kurnia, & Chang, 2015). In
addition, users may find websites more enjoyable that offer interactivity (Rauniar, Rawski, Yang,
& Johnson, 2014). Considering that SNSs provide interactive social activities, users may enjoy
with Edmodo’s features. In the current study, as students enjoy using Edmodo, they might have a
perception that Edmodo is easy to use. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that:
H9: PE has a positive effect on PEOU.

Technological complexity (TC), refers to the degree to which a system is considered to be difficult
to use (Thompson, Higgins, & Howell, 1991), The effect of TC on PEOU was supported by certain
studies (Son, Park, Kim, & Chou, 2012; Teo, Zhou, et al., 2019). In the current study, although
the student panel was introduced to the students at the first meeting of the class and although
Edmodo shares similar features with SNSs, students might have difficulties in using it, as it is a
relatively new technology. Finally considering that Internet access via mobile phone is very com-
mon among university students, it is probable that students may have some technical difficulties
(eg, screen compatibility, downloading/uploading files), while using Edmodo through their mo-
bile phones (Al-Said, 2015), and this may affect their perception of PEOU. Regarding this issue,
the following hypothesis is formulated:
H10: TC has a negative effect on PEOU.

In adoption and acceptance studies, the term computer self-efficacy was used as an individual’s
belief about his or her capability to use a computer system (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008). Teo, Sang,
et al. (2019) used web 2.0 self-efficacy as a predictor of teachers’ PEOU of web 2.0 technology. As
a result, it was found that participants’ SE levels influenced their perception of PEOU. In Edmodo,
students’ beliefs of their abilities to send/replay messages, join a class through a code, participate in
discussions, submit assignments, access to the library and edit profiles are related to context-specific
SE that may influence their PEOU. If students have a high level of SE in using Edmodo, they will find
the Edmodo as easy to operate. Regarding this issue, the following hypothesis is formulated.
H11: SE has a positive effect on PEOU.

Based on the aforementioned hypothesis, the proposed model was illustrated in Figure 1.

Method
This study aimed to examine the factors that influence students’ behavioral intention to use
Edmodo for learning with the extended TAM. In order to achieve this aim, a cross-sectional sur-
vey design as one type of survey research was employed in the current study. The cross-sectional
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Figure 1: Research model of the study

survey design is used to collect data from a determined sample at one point in time (Creswell,
2012; Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2012).

Participants
This study was carried out at a state university in the Aegean part of Turkey during the spring
term of 2018–2019 academic year. The participants were 218 students from the faculty of
education. Edmodo was utilized in the course having different sections for the departments.
Among the participants, 69.7% (n = 152) were female and 30.3% (n = 66) were male. The
mean age of participants was 20.9 with ranging from 19 to 33. 71.1 % (n = 155) of the par-
ticipants have used Edmodo for less than one year, 28.9 % (n = 63) of the participants have
used it for more than 1 year. In addition, 55% (n = 120) of the participants reported using
Edmodo for 0–1 hour in a week, whereas 45% (n = 98) of them used it for 2–4 hours. 45 %
(n = 99) of the participants reported that they had an experience through social network sup-
ported learning, while the remaining 55 % (n = 119) had no experience about social network
supported learning.

Data collection tool and procedure

The data collection tool consisted of two parts. The first part included demographics such as gen-
der, age, Edmodo usage on a year base, experience with social network learning and weekly usage
of Edmodo. The second part included 35 items rated on a 7-item Likert type scale (1 = strongly
disagree to 7 = strongly agree). This part aimed to determine students’ intention to use Edmodo
for learning through extended TAM. The items of scale have been modified from previous studies
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 Understanding university students’ behavioral intention to use Edmodo    625

Table 1: Items and constructs of the scale

Construct Items Reference

Perceived usefulness PU1 Davis (1989)

PU2
PU3
PU4
PU5
Perceived ease of use PEOU1 Davis (1989)
PEOU2
PEOU3
PEOU4
Attitude ATT1 Davis (1989); Taylor and Todd (1995)
ATT2
ATT3
Behavioral intention BI1 Bhattacherjee (2001a, 2001b)
BI2
BI3
Subjective norms SN1 Fishbein and Ajzen (1975); Teo et al. (2018)
SN2
SN3
Output quality OUT1 Jan and Contreras (2016); Teo, Zhou, et al.,
OUT2 (2019); Venkatesh and Davis (2000)
OUT3
OUT4
Self-efficacy SE1 Liaw (2008)
SE2
SE3
Perceptions of external control PEC1 Venkatesh and Bala (2008)
PEC2
PEC3
PEC4
Perceived enjoyment PE1 Venkatesh and Bala (2008)
PE2
Technological complexity TC1 Teo (2009); Thompson et al. (1991)
TC2
TC3

in the literature to fit this research and are presented in Table 1. The selected items which were
previously validated were translated into Turkish by two experts from the field of educational
technology having proficiency in both two languages. Then an expert from the field of English
Language Teaching and an expert from the field of Turkish Language Teaching controlled the
translated version of the scale to ensure the Turkish version was consistent with the original
scale. Furthermore, the scale was administered to 10 students from the faculty of education to
evaluate clarity. Based on the experts’ suggestions and students’ evaluations, slight modifications
were done to achieve content and face validity. As a result, the researchers modified the items and
made the final form of the scale.
In general, the organization of the course through Edmodo is as follows. First, instructors create
a class and an access code is generated. This code is shared with students, who are supposed to
take the course. Then, students join the class generated on Edmodo. The students participating
in this study were enrolled in the course of Information Technology. In this course, the students
learned the basics of information technology, the use of the Internet and e-mail, office tools,
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ethical use of computer technologies, using the Internet in education, secure Internet usage, and
the effect of the Internet on children and adolescents. Edmodo was used to share course materials
(e.g., presentations, documents, and videos) and other resources (links and textbooks), organize
­homework and exercises, discuss topics, and make announcements. At the end of the semester,
the data collection tool was administered to the students via Google Forms.

Data analysis
To test the model, Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed.
In this study, the reason to use PLS-SEM is twofold. First, PLS-SEM is a more preferred technique
in exploratory research studies, which aim to identify the relationship between constructs (Hair,
Hult, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2014). As the main purpose of this study is to explain factors that in-
fluence students’ intention to use Edmodo rather than confirming theories, PLS-SEM is regarded
to be a more appropriate technique. Second, considering the sample size of the current study
PLS-SEM was used rather than covariance-based—structural equation modeling (CB-SEM), as it
is less subject to violation of the normality assumption. Before conducting the analysis, the min-
imum sample size should be estimated. The minimum sample size is suggested to be 10 times the
largest number of structural paths directing a particular latent variable anywhere in the model
(Hair et al., 2014), which is four (PEOU) in the current study (see Figure 1). Accordingly, the min-
imum sample size required is 40 (10 × 4). Additionally, a statistical power analysis was conducted
using G*Power software (Faul, Erdfelder, Buchner, & Lang, 2009). A power of 0.80 and a medium
effect size (f2 = 0.15) with the PEOU variable that received the maximum number of predictors
(four) were used as parameter values. Results yielded a minimum sample size of 85. After all,
having 218 cases, this study was considered as having a sufficient sample size. SmartPLS 3.2.7
program was used to test the developed model. The analyses were conducted in two steps. The
measurement model, which is known as the outer model was tested in terms of the reliability and
validity of the constructs and their measures. Then the structural model, which is known as the
inner model was evaluated in terms of relationships between constructs.

Results
Testing measurement model
Table 2 shows evidence related to internal consistency reliability and convergent validity. All
items had satisfactory factor loadings, which were above the recommended threshold value
(0.50) (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Internal consistency reliability was evaluated through
Composite Reliability (CR), Cronbach’s Alpha, and Dijkstra-Henseler’s rho values. The recom-
mended threshold value is 0.70 (Hair et al., 2014, Nunnally, 1978). According to Table 2, all
dimensions were above the threshold value suggesting that internal consistency reliability was
established.
The average variance extracted (AVE) values of all constructs were greater than the recom-
mended value of 0.50 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981), showing that convergent validity was met.
To assess discriminant validity, Fornell and Larcker’s (1981) criteria and Hetrotrait–Monotrait
(HTMT) ratio of correlations method were employed. According to Fornell and Larcker
(1981), the square root of an AVE value for a construct should be greater than all correlations
between that construct and other constructs. Besides the HTMT ratio of correlations should
be lower than 0.90 (Henseler, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2015). Table 3 shows that all values met the
suggested criteria. Thus, discriminant validity was met. In sum, the measurement model was
found to have sufficient reliability and validity values. Hence, we proceeded to analyze the
structural model.

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Table 2: Results of the testing measurement model

Construct Item Loading AVE CR Alpha Rho_A

Attitude 0.862 0.950 0.920 0.922

ATT1 0.926
ATT2 0.942
ATT3 0.919
Behavioral intention 0.858 0.948 0.917 0.917
BI1 0.941
BI2 0.943
BI3 0.894
Output quality 0.833 0.952 0.933 0.935
OUT1 0.922
OUT2 0.927
OUT3 0.885
OUT4 0.916
Perceived ease of use 0.684 0.896 0.844 0.859
PEOU1 0.867
PEOU2 0.871
PEOU3 0.860
PEOU4 0.697
Perceived enjoyment 0.904 0.966 0.947 0.955
PE1 0.965
PE2 0.957
PE3 0.931
Perceived usefulness 0.777 0.946 0.928 0.930
PU1 0.837
PU2 0.880
PU3 0.922
PU4 0.904
PU5 0.861
Perceptions of external 0.760 0.927 0.895 0.895
control
PEC1 0.840
PEC2 0.895
PEC3 0.893
PEC4 0.888
Self-efficacy 0.878 0.956 0.931 .937
SE1 0.933
SE2 0.934
SE3 0.944
Subjective norms 0.793 0.920 0.870 0.885
SN1 0.871
SN2 0.907
SN3 0.893
Technological 0.877 0.955 0.930 0.945
complexity
TC1 0.914
TC2 0.957
TC3 0.938

Note. AVE = Average Variance Extracted, CR = Composite Reliability, rho_A = Dijkstra-Henseler’s rho.

Testing structural model

To test hypothetical relationships, a bootstrapping resampling routine with 5000 subsamples
was performed. R2 values, beta coefficients (β), significance of the path coefficients, and t values
© 2020 British Educational Research Association
 Table 3: Results of discriminant validity

© 2020 British Educational Research Association

ATT BI OUT PEOU PE PU PEC SE SN TC

ATT 0.929 0.825 0.798 0.763 0.826 0.784 0.719 0.797 0.437 0.083
BI 0.760 0.926 0.755 0.607 0.769 0.733 0.580 0.611 0.558 0.096
OUT 0.741 0.700 0.913 0.765 0.752 0.863 0.716 0.683 0.573 0.106
PEOU 0.678 0.545 0.686 0.827 0.653 0.790 0.842 0.799 0.496 0.235
PE 0.772 0.716 0.707 0.591 0.951 0.738 0.651 0.671 0.454 0.047
628    British Journal of Educational Technology 

PU 0.727 0.676 0.804 0.711 0.690 0.881 0.661 0.655 0.607 0.085
PEC 0.655 0.528 0.656 0.730 0.603 0.606 0.872 0.800 0.436 0.153
SE 0.741 0.565 0.638 0.709 0.632 0.611 0.735 0.937 0.378 0.114
SN 0.396 0.498 0.524 0.428 0.413 0.552 0.390 0.348 0.890 0.099
TC −0.079 0.065 −0.100 −0.212 −0.031 −0.075 −0.143 −0.110 0.083 0.937
Note. Bold diagonal: square root of AVE, below diagonal: Fornell and Larcker, above diagonal: HTMT ratio of correlations. ATT = Attitude, BI = Behavioral
intention, OUT = Output quality, PEOU = Perceived ease of use, PE = Perceived enjoyment, PU = Perceived usefulness, PEC = Perceived complexity, SE = Self-
efficacy, SN = Subjective norms, TC = Technological complexity.
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Table 4: Results of hypothesis testing

Hypothesis Relationship β t p f2 Decision

H1 PU → BI 0.262 4.225 *** 0.083 Supported

H2 PU → ATT 0.495 5.945 *** 0.289 Supported
H3 PEOU → ATT 0.327 3.945 *** 0.126 Supported
H4 PEOU → PU 0.281 4.715 *** 0.142 Supported
H5 ATT → BI 0.570 9.112 *** 0.393 Supported
H6 SN → PU 0.154 2.598 ** 0.059 Supported
H7 OUT → PU 0.530 9.313 *** 0.451 Supported
H8 PEC → PEOU 0.392 4.498 *** 0.173 Supported
H9 PE → PEOU 0.154 2.337 * 0.035 Supported
H10 TC → PEOU −0.117 2.896 ** 0.035 Supported
H11 SE → PEOU 0.311 3.696 *** 0.103 Supported
Note. ATT = Attitude, BI = Behavioral intention, OUT = Output quality, PEOU= Perceived ease of use,
PE = Perceived enjoyment, PU = Perceived usefulness, PEC = Perceived complexity, SE = Self-efficacy,
SN = Subjective norms, TC = Technological complexity.
*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Table 5: Predictive relevance and explained variance

Endogenous variables R2 Q2

ATT 0.581 0.472

BI 0.610 0.491
PEOU 0.623 0.396
PU 0.711 0.514
Note. ATT = Attitude, BI = Behavioral intention, PEOU= Perceived ease of use, PU = Perceived usefulness.

were reported. Table 4 demonstrates the results of the testing structural model. Results showed
that all hypotheses were supported. Table 5 shows the explained variance (R2) and predictive
relevance (Q2) of each endogenous variable. R2 values of .67, .33, and .19 indicate the strong,
moderate, and weak model (Chin, 1998). Accordingly, the strength of the model in predicting
endogenous variables was found to be moderate to strong. The model accounted for 61% of the
variance in explaining students’ behavioral intention to use Edmodo. The accounted variances
on ATT, PEOU, and PU were 58%, 62%, and 71% respectively (Table 5).
The results of the whole model were depicted in Figure 2.
Q2 and f2 were used to report predictive relevance and effect size (Hair et al., 2014). Q2 values
above zero indicate that the model has predictive relevance (Hair et al., 2014). As Table 5 demon-
strates, all endogenous variables had adequate predictive relevance. Considering effect sizes (f2),
values of .02, .15, and .35 imply small, moderate, and strong effects (Cohen, 1988). Accordingly,
PU had a small to moderate impact (f2 = 0.083), whilst ATT had a quite strong impact on BI
(f2 = 0.393). The impact of PU on ATT was moderate to strong (f2 = 0.289), while PEOU had a
moderate effect on ATT (f2 = 0.126). Considering the impact of PEOU on PU, a moderate effect
size was observed (f2 = 0.142).
Lastly, the model fit was evaluated by SRMR (Standardized Root Mean Square Residual). The cal-
culated SRMR (0.053) was less than the recommended threshold value (≤0.08) (Hu & Bentler,
1999), showing a good fit.

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Figure 2: Results of the structural model. Note. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

Discussion
This paper examined factors affecting students’ behavioral intention to use Edmodo, which is an
educational social network. A research model was developed based on extended TAM. Through
this aim, students, who registered in Edmodo supported course, participated in the study. Results
postulated that the formulated model was reliable and valid. Besides, all of the hypotheses were
supported. Having a moderate to strong explanation rate, the whole model accounted for 61% of
the variance in explaining students’ behavioral intention to use Edmodo.
As for the distinct effects of extended TAM variables, the attitude was a significant predictor and
also had the strongest effect on behavioral intention to use Edmodo, implying that the more stu-
dents develop positive attitudes toward Edmodo, the more they use it. This result consists fairly
well with the literature on acceptance of Moodle (Sánchez & Hueros, 2010), acceptance of social
learning systems (Akman & Turhan, 2017), and also with other research on e-learning platforms
(Moreno, Cavazotte, & Alves, 2017), demonstrating that attitude was a significant predictor. This
result was not surprising considering the fact that attitudes might be shaped by the system char-
acteristics, the extent of system usage, and the individual characteristics of the users (Lee, Cho,
Gay, Davison, & Ingraffea, 2003).
In this study, students had been using Edmodo for about one year as well as they might have been
using other SNSs before Edmodo, which might have led to the formation of the favorable or unfa-
vorable feelings (ie, attitude). If students have favorable feelings toward Edmodo, they are more
likely to be motivated to use it in the future or vice versa.
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 Understanding university students’ behavioral intention to use Edmodo    631

When the antecedents of attitude were explored, it was found that both perceived ease of use
and perceived usefulness significantly and positively impacted attitude. In other words, it can be
postulated that the ease of use of Edmodo and the benefits of Edmodo to students’ learning influ-
enced attitude toward Edmodo (Chintalapati & Daruri, 2017; Esteban-Millat, Martínez-López,
Pujol-Jover, Gázquez-Abad, & Alegret, 2018).
Despite the fact that the majority of students used Edmodo for 1 hour in a week for their learning,
positive perceptions regarding ease of use and usefulness may be due to their past social media
usage habits. Besides, considering that some of the students already might have been supported
through social media for their learning, they might have transferred these habits.
As for the distinct effect of perceived usefulness, it was found a significant and positive impact of
perceived usefulness on intention, which is in good agreement with the literature on the inten-
tion to use learning management system (Eraslan Yalcin & Kutlu, 2019; Saroia & Gao, 2019)
and social network service (Kwon & Wen, 2010; Rauniar et al., 2014). It may be speculated that
unlike other social network services, in which students have privacy concerns (Cao et al., 2013),
Edmodo offers some useful tools for learning such as file sharing, calendar tool, library, and quiz
in a secure way. Therefore, as these tools were used by the students in such an SNS-like environ-
ment, they might have believed that the Edmodo platform was a useful tool for their learning and
intended to benefit from it for their future learning.
Regarding the antecedents of perceived usefulness, it was found that output quality, perceived
ease of use and subjective norms were all significant predictors. Out of these factors, output quality
had the highest effect on perceived usefulness. Students were likely to believe that Edmodo was
competent for carrying out learning tasks leading to improved effectiveness and productivity for
learning and this might have influenced their perception of usefulness. This lends support to pre-
vious findings in the literature (Teo, Zhou, et al., 2019; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). Perceived ease
of use was another significant and positive antecedent of perceived usefulness. To put it differ-
ently, higher perceived ease of use tends to lead to higher perceived usefulness, which conforms
well with similar studies conducted on social network sites acceptance (Qin, Kim, Hsu, & Tan,
2011) and mobile LMS use (Joo et al., 2016). The significant influence of perceived ease of use on
perceived usefulness may be because Edmodo has a similar interface with other SNS, especially
with Facebook. Due to these similarities, students might have operated Edmodo without difficulty,
when doing any instructional activities. Moreover, through Edmodo, students could post a com-
ment in any discussion activity, access to course related files in the library tool, or use the system
with different language options. This may also contribute to the idea that students’ perception
of perceived ease of use affected their perception of usefulness. Considering the significant and
positive influence of social norms on perceived usefulness, it could be postulated that as significant
others believed that Edmodo would be used as a supportive tool in their course, students were
more likely to believe that Edmodo was useful for their learning. In other words, positive encour-
agement of important people (ie, peers, instructors, and parents) influenced the students’ view
toward the benefits of Edmodo. This result was also in line with the literature (Choi & Chung,
2013; Cigdem & Topcu, 2015).
As for the antecedents of perceived ease of use, the results highlighted that all predictors were sig-
nificant and the perception of external control was the most influential one. This finding indicated
that necessary support or resources were provided to students when they were using Edmodo. For
example, Edmodo provides a help center for users, when they confront with any troubles. In this
center, there are different help topics such as Edmodo features, account settings, and contact sup-
port. In this regard, if students had a problem, there would be many opportunities to overcome it.
Besides, students have an opportunity to send messages to their instructors when they need help.
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As a result, perceptions of external control were positively influenced by students’ perceptions

of external control beliefs and this link was also in line with the literature (Teo, 2010; Teo, Lee,
& Chai, 2008). Perceived self-efficacy was found to be another significant factor of perceived ease
of use. Consistent with prior studies (Motaghian, Hassanzadeh, & Moghadam, 2013; Fathema,
Shannon, & Ross, 2015), students might have believed that they had different abilities to operate
Edmodo such as registering, making comments, watching videos, and accessing on the Edmodo
via different platforms such as a computer, mobile phone, and tablet. This high level of self-efficacy
beliefs may have contributed positively to the students’ perceptions of ease to operate Edmodo. As
for the significant and positive influence of perceived enjoyment, it can be proposed that the more
student thinks that Edmodo is enjoyable, the more perceives system as easy to use Enjoyment is
conceptualized as an antecedent of perceived ease of use, which grows as user gather experience
with the system (Venkatesh, 2000). In this study, students used Edmodo for one term. During this
period, they might have enjoyed with Edmodo as it provided interactive activities like other SNSs
and they were probably satisfied with this educational SNS, which consecutively might have con-
tributed to their perceived ease of use for learning. These results share a number of similarities
with other studies in the literature (Abdullah, Ward, & Ahmed, 2016; Teo, Sang, et al., 2019).
As a final antecedent of perceived ease of use, it was found that technological complexity was sig-
nificantly but negatively associated with the perceived ease of use. This was an expected result
when the literature on the issue was examined (Cigdem & Topcu, 2015; Teo, Zhou, et al., 2019).
Students who believed that Edmodo is complex to use also reported less inclination to use it in the
future.

Implications for theory and practice

A unique contribution of this study is that it is one of the first attempts for employing extended
TAM that scrutinizes factors influencing university students’ intention to use Edmodo as an ed-
ucational SNS and LMS. Therefore, the results of this study present some important implications
both in terms of theory and practice. Theoretically, this study contributed to the validation of an
extended TAM by considering external antecedents of perceived usefulness and perceived ease
of use that explain Edmodo adoption. By doing so, a more integrative perspective was achieved.
Moreover, our findings appear to be well substantiated by the literature.
Regarding practice, some implications can be suggested. First of all, considering that the attitude
was found to have the strongest influence on the intention to use Edmodo, instructors may attach
prominent importance to foster students’ positive attitudes toward Edmodo use. Instructors may
design virtual learning environments with collaborative activities on SNS to increase students’
perceived usefulness. As they use Edmodo in their course, students may realize the educational
benefits of such a platform.
Considering that this study is carried out with the students of education faculty, a special inter-
est may be devoted to how, when, and why to use different educational SNS(s) within the scope
of some courses (e.g., instructional technologies) covered by faculty of education curriculum.
Familiarizing students with the output qualities of the system could alter their beliefs of per-
ceived usefulness. Additionally, instructors may also apply for significant others’ positive views
to promote other students’ Edmodo use (Teo, Zhou, et al., 2019). To experience an easy to use the
system, technical guidance, support or help should be supported to students, whenever needed.
Furthermore, we suggest an orientation program to make students feel more competent in oper-
ating the different features of the system. Finally, designers and developers of an educational SNS
should design interfaces that should be not only less complex but also more enjoyable.

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 Understanding university students’ behavioral intention to use Edmodo    633

Limitations and future directions

This research has some limitations, which can lead to future research opportunities. The first lim-
itation of this study was that data were collected from a specific university in Turkey. To enhance
the generalizability of the findings, similar research can be carried out with several universities
from other countries. Second, students’ experiences may be unstable during the usage period of
Edmodo and this may affect their adoption behaviors. Therefore, longitudinal studies can be con-
ducted. Third, the current study employed extended TAM. Future studies would extend the model
by embracing other theoretical models and factors.

Conclusions
With the growing importance of using SNSs in teaching and learning activities, we investigated
factors that influence students’ behavioral intention to use an educational SNS, Edmodo, through
a well-established theory, extended TAM. Using PLS-SEM, the results provide strong support for
our hypotheses.
To sum up, it was found that attitude, which was affected by the qualities of perceived usefulness
and ease of use, was the most influential predictor of Edmodo usage intention. Perceived useful-
ness had a moderate influence on intention. The influence of perceived usefulness and perceived
ease of use were evaluated along with their external antecedents. The findings of the study are
expected to add to a growing body of literature on educational SNS(s).
Investigating users’ adoption, acceptance, or rejection of a particular system is of critical impor-
tance in the field of information technology (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Therefore, as a concluding
comment, we suggest that not only Edmodo but also other educational tools should be tested
holistically through user views before they are widely used.

Statements on open data, ethics and conflict of interest

The data used in this study are available upon request.
The participants of this study voluntarily responded to the online questionnaire.
The authors have no conflict of interest.

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