Student Readiness and Acceptance of eLearning Platforms: The Case of UDOM eClassroom of the University of Dodoma

Objectives: To identify factors influencing students' acceptance of the UDOM eClassroom system at the University of Dodoma, focusing on the pandemic situation during and after the COVID-19 impacts in Tanzania. Methods: This study used the Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) as the theoretical framework and extended it by incorporating constructs such as Management support, Facilitating conditions, and Subjective norms from the other models. The model was tested using survey responses from 101 students (n=101) taking diplomas and bachelor's degrees from various programs at the College of Informatics and Virtual Education (CIVE). Findings: Quantitative analysis revealed that perceived usefulness (p-value=0.000), ease of use (p-value=0.000), management support(p-value=0.000), facilitating condition (p-value=0.000), and student attitude (p-value=0.000) have significantly influenced the students' UDOM eClassroom acceptance. The subjective norm (p-value=0.224) did not influence the acceptance of students' UDOM eClassroom. The study's findings will support educational institutions in identifying the strategies needed to boost learning platform usage and achieve the intended outcomes in educational institutions. Novelity: This study has focused on locally developed eLearning systems by the higher education institution specifically UDOM eClassroom which has different support structures, user experience, and resource constraints compared to the available open-source eLearning platforms such as Moodle and Blackboard. Keywords: Student acceptance, eLearning system, UDOM eClassroom, Digital learning, Educational institutions