Technological environment, virtual experience, and MOOC continuance: A stimulus-organism-response perspective

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer a new learning environment, and their development facilitates educational democracy and equality. Although MOOCs are rapidly increasing in popularity worldwide, there remains a serious problem of learners discontinuing courses. Consequently, investigation of the drivers of MOOC continuance is warranted. This study aimed to investigate, by applying the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, the impact the technological environmental features of MOOC systems, such as interactivity, media richness, and sociability, have on learners' intention to continue participating in MOOCs. Further, virtual experience of telepresence, social presence, and flow was also integrated into the research framework as central underlying mechanisms. Employing a structural equation modeling approach, the hypothesized model was validated empirically using data collected from 374 participants on the Chinese University MOOC platform. After the measurement model was validated, the structural model was tested using partial least squares. The results showed that the technological-environmental features of interactivity and media richness positively predicted participants' virtual experience of telepresence; meanwhile, sociability and media richness were associated with social presence. Furthermore, telepresence and social presence predicted flow, which in turn was closely related to intention to continue using MOOCs. The results highlight, based on the S-O-R framework, the critical role these technological-environment-related variables have in relation to learners' virtual experience and their intention to continue using MOOCs. In particular, this study shows the significance of understanding the influence media richness and sociability have on MOOC continuance, as interactivity has been examined in a previous work.