Exploring the factors influencing users’ satisfaction and continuance intention of MOOCs in China

Abstract

Recently, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) have received much attention from users. Users’ continuance intention of using MOOC is one of the most important indicators to measure the success of MOOCs. At present, MOOCs are facing a low completion rate and retention rate problems. This calls for the importance in investigating factors that affect MOOC users’ satisfaction, thereby enhancing the intention to continue using MOOCs. The purpose of this research was therefore to explore the factors affecting MOOC users’ satisfaction and continuance intention towards the Expectation Confirmation Model. In total, 410 questionnaires were collected via an online survey and analysed with the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Participants were Chinese employees from different city tiers who had experienced using or now used MOOCs. The analysis indicated a good fit of the structural equation model. The analysis results showed that the confirmation factor has a significant impact on perceived usefulness, perceived service quality, and satisfaction. The analysis results highlighted that perceived service quality has the strongest impact on satisfaction, thereby enhancing the continuance intention in using MOOC. The results also revealed that perceived usefulness and perceived service quality can not only directly influence continuance intention, but also indirectly influenced satisfaction. The findings therefore suggested that MOOC providers should focus on improving MOOCs’ overall quality to better meet MOOC users’ satisfaction, thereby enhancing the intention to continue using MOOCs.