The effects of computer-mediated communication anxiety on student perceptions of instructor behaviors, perceived learning, and quiz performance

ABSTRACT

Online environments increasingly serve as contexts for learning. Hence, it is important to understand how student characteristics, such as student computer-mediated communication anxiety (CMCA) affects learning outcomes in mediated classrooms. To better understand how student CMCA may influence student online learning experiences, we tested a proposed model based on the instructional beliefs model (IBM) to determine how CMCA influenced perceptions of instructor credibility, electronic propinquity, and learning outcomes (i.e. perceived learning and quiz performance). This model was compared with the IBM and the newly proposed model provided a better fit to the data. This model helps explicate the direct and indirect effects of CMCA in online learning environments.

KEYWORDS:

• online learning
• computer-mediated communication anxiety
• instructor credibility
• electronic propinquity
• structural equation modeling