Evaluating information accessibility and community adaptivity features for sustaining virtual learning communities
Virtual communities have been identified as the killer applications on the Internet Information Superhighway. Their impact is increasingly pervasive, with activities ranging from the economic and marketing to the social and educational. Despite their popularity, little is understood as to what factors contribute to the sustainability of virtual communities. This study focuses on a specific type of virtual communitiesthe virtual learning communities. It employs an experiment to examine the impact of two critical issues in system designinformation accessibility and community adaptivityon the sustainability of virtual learning communities. Adopting an extended Technology Acceptance Model, the experiment exposed 69 subjects to six different virtual learning communities differentiated by two levels of information accessibility and three levels of community adaptivity, solicited their feelings and perceptions, and measured their intentions to use the virtual learning communities. Results indicate that both information accessibility and community adaptivity have significant effects on user perceptions and behavioural intention. Implications for theory and practice are drawn and discussed.
information accessibility community adaptivity virtual learning community technology acceptance model community sustainability sense of belonging