Factors Influencing Hackathon Adoption for Learning Information Technology (IT) Programming Modules

Hackathon as a social event has been identified as a method that assists participants collaborate and solve technical design challenges in a limited time. With the numerous hackathon potentials, its significance in computer and IT programming courses have not been fully explored for teaching and learning. The hackathon concept has been in existence for some times, and research on the adoption of hackathon has been limited to the industry but not much in education. This paper endeavours to investigate the factors that influence hackathon adoption in the academic sector particularly in higher education. Quantitative research was undertaken; a survey was administered to a sample of 249 South African IT programming students. The results indicate that relative advantage (beta = 0.142, rho = 0.045), perceived usefulness (beta = 0.205, rho = 0.036), performance expectancy (beta = 0.205, rho = 0.002) and self-efficacy (beta = 0.330, rho = 0.000) have a positive influence on the behavioural intention of students to adopt hackathon for learning IT programming. The hackathon adoption model was developed for higher education. This research helps in the adoption of hackathons in higher education.