TITLE:
Research on College Students’ Willingness to Use Online Resources and the Effect of Using Them under the Theory of Uses and Gratifications
AUTHORS:
Fang Jin
KEYWORDS:
Uses and Gratifications Theory, Zhihuishu Platform, Online Learning, Willingness to Use, Effectiveness of Use, Online Resources
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.11,
October
31,
2024
ABSTRACT: With the rapid development of information technology, online learning platforms have become an important channel for college students to acquire knowledge. Based on the theory of “Uses and Gratifications”, this study explores college students’ willingness to use online learning platforms and their effects of using them, taking the example of students’ use of Zhihuishu platform in the course of Selected English Newspapers and Periodicals 1 in Zhejiang Yuexiu University. The data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed by Ordered Logit Regression Model, and the results of the study showed that students’ overall satisfaction, weekly usage time and frequency of using Zhihuishu platform were significantly positively correlated with their academic performance and professional knowledge mastery. This supports the Uses and Gratifications Theory, which states that students choose to use the Zhihuishu platform based on their personal needs, and that they learn better when those needs are met. The study also found that students’ attitudes toward using the platform directly influenced their usage behavior, which in turn significantly influenced their learning outcomes. Based on these findings, the study proposes recommendations for optimizing the online resources including improving user satisfaction, increasing interaction and engagement, optimizing the user interface, improving technical support, improving content quality and search capabilities, and encouraging duration and frequency of use, with the goal of further improving student learning effectiveness and satisfaction.