Technophobia: How Students’ Technophobia Impacts Their Technology Acceptance in an Online Class

Abstract

In 2019, COVID-19 caused a swift shift to online classes over a short period of time. This shift stirred up many issues with online classes research, an area that is already rich with conflicting findings. Previous studies argue that there are many areas that we do not fully understand in online classes research, and they need to be investigated. The current study argues that technophobia might be one of these areas; technophobia has always been associated with technology avoidance and that has had a catastrophic impact on students’ performance in online classes. The current study examines the impact of technophobia on technology acceptance and the moderating influence of students’ learning style and online class preference on that relationship. Findings of this study suggest that, with the right resource and support, technophobia would have a positive impact on the ease-of-use dimension of technology acceptance. In addition, learning style and online class preference might not be as good a fit as moderating variables in online environment. These findings can help universities and instructors to design classes that are better suited for online students. More details are provided in the discussion, study implication and limitations of this article.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Odai Y. Khasawneh

Odai Y. Khasawneh work focuses on technophobia and technology avoidance. His work has been published in a variety of journals such as: Computers in Human Interaction, Technology in Society, International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology, and the Journal of Business Studies Quarterly.