engleski

Factors Influencing Students' Behavioral Intention to Use Digitally-Signed Credentials

Given the novelty of the technical framework for digitally-signed credentials developed in 2020 and low adoption rates in higher education, this is one of the first research studies focusing on adoption issues of digitally-signed credentials. Other significant contributions of the study are acknowledging the national-level context for the implementation of the framework for digitally-signed credentials in higher education, and the focus on the perspective of credential owners, i.e. learners or students - the largest group of future users. As users who receive their credentials, students can store, organise and share their digital credentials in their Europass library, e-Portfolio or other platforms and wallets. In that regard, a well-known model of acceptance and use of technology (Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, UTAUT) is used to examine their intention to use the digitally-signed credentials. The conceptual model is based on the UTAUT model factors, extended with two additional factors – trust and perceived risk. Empirical data needed to validate the model and examine the research hypotheses (based on relationships between Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, Trust, Perceived Risk and Behavioural Intention) were collected using online questionnaires administered to students in a controlled environment. A structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis based on the feedback from over 300 participants is presented in the paper. Based on the review and the results, the study deliberates the potential and the conditions for effective implementation of digitally-signed credentials in higher education institutions and identifies limitations and future research directions.

Digitally signed credentials ; UTAUT ; Behavioural intention ; Higher education ; Students

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