Determinants of behavioral intention to use e-textbooks: A study in Iran’s agricultural sector

With the advent of internet and information systems, the trend on the use of mobile learning (M-learning) in education has a rapid growth. So, the people who live in the media-saturated world have great attention to these new technologies. Therefore, the interaction between human and these technologies is important and considerable. This interaction depends on psychological factors and technology attributes. In this regard, this paper investigates the determinants of users’ behavioral intention to use electronic textbooks (e-textbooks) in the agricultural sector in Iran. A joint project between Iran and Japan has been accomplished during a two years period. In the final stage, six workshops were held in a less developed province of Iran. In these workshops, data were collected by questionnaires distributed among the pioneer farmers. Participants were aged 29–52, with a mean of 40. The mean of use of digital devices among participants was 2.17 from 3 and smartphone had the highest use among participants. Among the other variables studied, computer anxiety with the lowest mean and attitude towards the content quality of e-textbooks for agricultural education with the highest mean appeared. Multiple regression methods by SPSS and PLS-SEM along with the correlation coefficient were performed to examine the determinants that promote behavioral intention. The results showed that the perceived ease of use towards e-textbooks, attitude towards the content quality of e-textbooks, and attitude towards using e-textbooks were significantly related to behavioral intention to use e-textbooks. Attitude towards the content quality of e-textbooks appeared to be the strongest factor in making e-textbooks. It is suggested that e-textbooks come with blended learning approaches for the instruction of agricultural content.