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Students’
Students’ intentions to use intentions to
PBWorks: a factor-based use PBWorks

PLS-SEM approach
Eddie W.L. Cheng 489
Department of Social Sciences, Education University of Hong Kong,
Tai Po, Hong Kong, and Received 26 May 2018
Revised 3 April 2019
Accepted 29 April 2019
Samuel K.W. Chu and Carol S.M. Ma
Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

Abstract
Purpose – Wikis, as one of the Web 2.0 tools, has been increasingly used to engage students to learn with
others in a collaborative virtual environment. However, there are relatively few studies examining the
application of wikis in secondary schools. Therefore, this study aims to investigate factors affecting the use of
PBWorks (a popular wiki tool).
Design/methodology/approach – The aim was achieved by empirically examining an extended
technology acceptance model (TAM) from a sample of 429 junior secondary students in Hong Kong.
Specifically, relationships among six latent variables, which were school support, teacher support, perceived
ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitudes towards use and the intention to use, were posited in the model.
The more robust factor-based partial least squares structural equation modelling (factor-based PLS-SEM) was
used to test the research model.
Findings – The results indicated that most of the hypotheses were supported, which suggested that the
extended TAM could explain the rationale behind students’ intentions to use PBWorks for group projects.
Originality/value – This paper extended the original TAM by including two additional variables (school
support and teacher support) for explaining behavioural intentions. Because of the increased use of e-learning
platforms in secondary schools, more understanding of what motivates secondary school students’ e-learning
intentions is necessary.
Keywords Wikis, Collaboration, e-learning, Peer learning, Factor-based PLS-SEM, PBWorks
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
With the advancement of Web 2.0 technologies, students are able to create knowledge in a
virtual environment (Sadaf et al., 2012). Such technologies are applied to develop students’
awareness, attitudes and abilities to efficiently use digital tools (Huang et al., 2013). One of
the possible areas that social media can assist in student learning is the application of Web-
based tools in students’ group projects (Cheng et al., 2016). Web technology applications,
such as blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter and Google Doc, enable computer-supported
collaborative learning so that students can develop Web contents collaboratively without
restriction of time and place (Chu and Kennedy, 2011). Alterman and Harsch (2017) referred
to this as loosely coupled collaborations that support joint problem solving. One of the most
Information and Learning
Sciences
Vol. 120 No. 7/8, 2019
This study was funded by the General Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of the Hong pp. 489-504
Kong SAR Government (grant number: HKU 743510H). The authors would like to thank the © Emerald Publishing Limited
2398-5348
reviewers for their constructive comments on a previous version of the paper. DOI 10.1108/ILS-05-2018-0043
ILS popular social media tools derived from Web 2.0 technologies is wikis, which, as evolved in
120,7/8 1995 by Ward Cunningham, the father of wikis (Tay, 2009; Chu et al., 2013), are an editable
website for students to read and add contents on the platform. In addition, wikis are content-
focused and process-oriented (Honegger and Notari, 2016). That is, students can visit, read,
re-organise and update the structure and content texts and pictures as they see fit.
However, more attention should be paid to the scientific process that focuses on the
490 relationship between e-learning factors and learners’ acceptance of technologies (Toral et al.,
2007). Among other theories, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is specifically tailored
for explaining users’ acceptance of an information system. The TAM, based on the theory of
reasoned action (TRA) of Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), was initially developed by Davis (1989).
According to the TRA, an individual’s behaviour is determined by the intention to perform
that behaviour. The TAM has been widely used for testing technology acceptance behaviours
and has been empirically found to be robust in explaining the acceptance of information
technologies (Davis, 1989; Igbaria et al., 1995; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000; Chang and Yang,
2013; Sánchez et al., 2013), including the enhancement of e-learning (Edmunds et al., 2012;
Cheung and Vogel, 2013; Persico et al., 2014; Abdullah and Ward, 2016; Chang et al., 2017).
Given the popularity of using the TAM to study technology acceptance behaviours, the
present paper proposes the application of the TAM to examine factors affecting school
students’ intentions to use PBWorks (a popular wiki tool) as an e-learning strategy. As noted
by Davis (1993, p. 475), “TAM specifies the causal relationships between systems design
features, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes towards using and actual usage
behaviour.” Moreover, this paper extends the original TAM by including two additional
variables (school support and teacher support) for explaining behavioural intentions. The
rationale for including these two variables in the model would be provided in the next section.
Because of the increased use of e-learning platforms in secondary schools, more understanding
of what motivates secondary school students’ e-learning intentions is necessary.
Despite the challenges (e.g. ethics in learning opportunities) in developing students with
twenty-first-century skills (Jenkins et al., 2009; Reich et al., 2012), a wiki is regarded as an
effective tool to help promote students’ active learning and move away from rote learning (Chu
et al., 2012). In a social networking community, students, when doing their group work, would
experience four major aspects of collaboration and interaction: information sharing,
information dissemination, communication and information gathering (Huang et al., 2015).
Such experiences can be enhanced with the use of wikis (Black, 2008; Chu, 2008; Wang and
Wei, 2011). The present study is therefore timely because it is intended to provide insights on
how secondary school students’ intentions to use Web technologies for learning through
group work can be improved. In recent years, rapid development of the Internet and
associated technologies has changed people’s information behaviours (Wu et al., 2017),
especially enhancing interaction and communication by use of social media in support of
social networking activities (Lantz-Andersson et al., 2013). Students, as active information
seekers and users, should take advantage of social media to improve their learning outcomes.

Hypothesized model
This research involves the development and test of an extended TAM model using a sample
of secondary school students in Hong Kong. As such, several hypotheses have been
developed and stipulated in the hypothesized model as shown in Figure 1. The hypotheses
reflect the relationships of the variables that explain the conditions for students’ technology
acceptance in a group work context. These hypotheses are described hereinafter.
School support Students’
Davis (1989) proposed that other external variables may influence perceived ease of use and intentions to
perceived usefulness. Many researchers have therefore suggested modifications to increase the
forecasting power of the TAM (Chang et al., 2012; Wong et al., 2012). In the present study, two
use PBWorks
external variables, which are the so-called facilitating conditions (Teo et al., 2008; Gu et al.,
2009), are included in the research model. One of these external variables is school support.
According to Ahmed (2010), organisational support includes the provision of personal
computers and printing facilities for learners on campus, online access to library services and
491
the provision of e-learning tools and technologies. The importance of organisational support
is evident in the education sector. For example, Walker and Johnson (2008) examined
instructors’ intentions to use course components for integrating Web-enhanced instructions
with traditional classroom courses. Results showed a significant relationship between
organisational support and perceived ease of use. Ahmed (2010), when assessing learners’
hybrid e-learning acceptance by reference to a total of 538 university students, found that
hybrid e-learning acceptance was greatly affected by organisational support for e-learning
based initiatives. Sánchez et al. (2013), using a sample of 226 university students to study the
acceptance of the WebCT’s learning platform, found that technical support had a direct effect
on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, which had a direct effect on attitudes.
The above studies call for more efforts directed to combine supports at the organisational
level for achieving greater personal computing acceptance. There is also a need for evidence
from schools, which are increasing use of Web technologies for teaching and learning.
Therefore, the effect of school support on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and
attitudes towards use of the wiki is proposed in the present study.

H1a. School support has a significant influence on perceived ease of use.

H1b. School support has a significant influence on perceived usefulness.
H1c. School support has a significant influence on attitudes towards use of the wiki.

Teacher support
In addition to school support, the role of teacher support (another dimension of facilitating
conditions) should not be underestimated. For example, teachers can support students’ use
of computers by providing them with computer skill training (Coryell and Chlup, 2007).
Previous studies have argued that instructors or teachers play a central role in the success of
e-learning because they can affect learners’ attitudes towards e-learning and enthusiasm

Figure 1.
Proposed
hypothesized model
and hypotheses
ILS (Webster and Hackley, 1997). In a qualitative study by Lai et al. (2016), students were found
120,7/8 to expect teachers playing a greater role in recommending useful technological resources to
support their autonomous learning with technology.
Moreover, Ralph (1991) indicated that training provided by knowledgeable people (e.g.
the instructor) promotes more favourable attitudes towards the system. Igbaria et al. (1995)
also found that training programs had strong direct and indirect (via perceived ease of use)
492 impacts on perceived usefulness. Similarly, Ngai et al. (2007), using a sample of 836
university students to investigate an extended model of user acceptance of WebCT, found
that technical support, including training, had a direct effect on perceived ease of use and
perceived usefulness and an indirect effect on attitudes. Thus, teacher support may exert a
significant influence on student technology acceptance indirectly through its effect on
perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and attitudes towards use of the wiki.
Accordingly, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H2a. Teacher support has a significant influence on perceived ease of use.

H2b. Teacher support has a significant influence on perceived usefulness.
H2c. Teacher support has a significant influence on attitudes towards use of the wiki.

Intention to use
In addition to the above hypotheses, the original TAM explains how a user’s behavioural
intention to use an information system reflects their acceptance of the system. The more the
users accept the new system, the greater is their willingness to start using the system (Shih,
2004). The acceptance of an information system involves behavioural beliefs (Sadaf et al., 2012).
The TAM focuses on two particular beliefs, which are perceived usefulness and perceived ease
of use. Perceived usefulness is defined as a user’s belief that using the system will enhance his
or her job performance whereas perceived ease of use is referred to as the degree to which a
user’s belief that the usage of the system does not entail extra efforts (Davis, 1989).
The TAM assumes that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use jointly affect the
attitude, which refers to a user’s personal evaluation regarding the usage of the system. The
attitude towards using the system determines the behavioural intention. The model further
theorises that perceived ease of use has a direct impact on perceived usefulness. Researchers
have found that the specified relationships in the TAM were significant (Lu et al., 2009;
Bourgonjon et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2010; Wojciechowski and Cellary, 2013; Badri et al., 2016).
Therefore, a set of hypotheses is proposed as follows:

H3a. Perceived ease of use has a significant influence on perceived usefulness.

H3b. Perceived ease of use has a significant influence on attitudes towards use of the wiki.
H4a. Perceived usefulness has a significant influence on attitudes towards use of the wiki.
H4b. Perceived usefulness has a significant influence on the intention to use.
H5. Attitudes towards use of the wiki have a significant influence on the intention to use.

Research method
Sample and data collection
To investigate students’ perceptions on the use of PBWorks, for their group project, all junior
form students (i.e. Form 1-Form 3) from a secondary school in Hong Kong participated in this
study. Altogether, there were 12 classes with 438 students in total. The data collection process Students’
was conducted during the academic year of 2014-15 and involved two stages. First, the intentions to
PBWorks wiki platform was introduced to the participating students. The research team and use PBWorks
teachers worked together and prepared the group platform with various sub-pages, such as
introduction, research questions, literature review, research methods, findings, etc. The
students had to compulsorily form a group of no more than four members and complete a
group enquiry project in Liberal Studies through the wiki platform. The research team created 493
a Youtube video to demonstrate the editing function of PBWorks. Teachers used a lesson to
demonstrate the general editing function of the PBworks, and students were given the
opportunity to experience the PBWorks. Then, students were required to complete their Liberal
Studies group project and teachers gave comments to them through this online platform. If the
students encountered difficulties or technical problems when using the PBworks, they could
contact teachers for help.
Second, after using the PBWorks tool for six months, a questionnaire, including a cover
letter and a consent form, was distributed to the students during class. They were asked to
complete the questionnaire (in Chinese) comprising demographic questions and measures of the
six latent variables in the research model. As the student participants were at the age between
12 and 17, the consent from their parents was obtained for this study. Their responses were
guaranteed to be confidential. Ethical clearance for the research was obtained from the grant-
receiving university. Of the 438 questionnaires being distributed, 429 usable questionnaires
were returned, giving a response rate of 97.9 per cent. In regard to demographics, 42.2 per cent
of the respondents were male (n = 181) and 57.8 per cent were female (n = 248). Moreover, the
sample consisted of 142 Form 1 students, 145 Form 2 students and 142 Form 3 students.

Measures
Items used to measure the four latent variables (i.e. perceived usefulness, perceived ease of
use, attitudes towards use of the wiki and the intention to use) were adapted from the
existing literature, including Davis (1989); Ngai et al. (2007); Gu et al. (2009); Lu et al. (2009);
Chang and Yang (2013); Sánchez et al. (2013) and Badri et al. (2016). They were measured on
a six-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (6). The two
remaining latent variables (i.e. school support and teacher support) were measured on a five-
point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (5). The items that
measured the latent variables are listed in the Table AI while the variables’ operational
definitions are shown below:
 School support is defined as the degree of the support given by the school, such as
the provision of computers, PBWorks and training.
 Teacher support is defined as the degree of the support given by the teacher in
terms of training and technical advices for using PBWorks.
 Perceived ease of use is defined as the extent to which a student believes that
PBWorks is easy to use.
 Perceived usefulness is defined as the extent to which a student believes that
PBWorks is useful for completing the group project.
 Attitudes towards use are defined as the extent to which a student likes to use
PBWorks for sharing information and feedback for group work.
 The intention to use is defined as the extent to which a student is willing and
continues to use PBWorks with others for group work.
ILS Data analysis
120,7/8 Among other structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques, the partial least squares
approach to SEM (PLS-SEM), which is known as the variance-based SEM, is appropriate to
analyse the non-normal data of the present study (Hair et al., 2014). The software tool for PLS-
SEM was WarpPLS5.0 (Kock, 2011). Instead of using the regression-based PLS-SEM that was
adopted in most existing studies, the employed outer model analysis algorithm was Factor-
494 Based PLS Type CFM1, which, similar to covariance-based SEM algorithms, explicitly accounts
for measurement errors (Kock, 2014). Dijkstra and Henseler (2015) refer to the factor-based PLS-
SEM as the consistent PLS-SEM. The factor-based PLS algorithm can help to check for common
method biases by assessing the full collinearity variance inflation factor (VIF) of each latent
variable. As noted by Kock and Lynn (2012), a VIF value smaller than 3.3 indicates the absence
of multicollinearity, supporting that the model is not contaminated by common method biases.
The test of multicollinearity and common method biases are reported in the Results section.

Results
Table I presents the inter-correlations of the latent variables. The correlations indicate that
the six latent variables were significantly correlated.

Test of the measurement model

Several criteria were adopted to address the reliability and validity of the measures in the
measurement model (Kock, 2011; Hair et al., 2014). For demonstrating reliability, two criteria –
Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability – were used. The values of both criteria should be
higher than 0.7 (Hair et al., 2014). As shown in Table II, the composite reliability of the scales
ranged from 0.812 to 0.927 and the Cronbach’s alpha of the scale ranged from 0.811 to 0.927.
The above reliability tests indicate that the measures of the variables present acceptable
reliability. Moreover, the factor analysis indicates that only one factor was extracted for each
latent variable. All factor loadings ranged from 0.577 to 0.919, which are above the threshold
value of 0.5 and are considered to be acceptable (Chen et al., 2015).
To confirm discriminant validity, the square root of average variances extracted (AVE)
of each variable should be greater than the correlations of that variable with other variables
(i.e. Fornell-Larcker criterion). The results in Table I indicate that for each latent variable, its
square root of AVE was higher than its correlations with other latent variables. Thus, the
test provides evidence for the presence of discriminant validity.
To confirm convergent validity, the AVE value of each variable should not be less than
0.50 (Hair et al., 2014). Results in Table II indicate that the AVE values of the latent variables
were in the range between 0.524 and 0.760, representing acceptable convergent validity.

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6

School support (0.750)

Teacher support 0.662** (0.724)
Perceived ease of use 0.388** 0.493** (0.797)
Perceived usefulness 0.311** 0.574** 0.592** (0.872)
Attitudes towards use 0.310** 0.533** 0.608** 0.735** (0.824)
Table I. Intention to use 0.240** 0.494** 0.662** 0.752** 0.679** (0.870)
Inter-correlations of
the latent variables Notes: Numbers in brackets are square roots of average variances extracted (AVE); **p < 0.01
As mentioned previously, for testing the presence of multicollinearity, the full collinearity Students’
VIF for each latent variable was computed. As shown in Table II, the VIF values ranged intentions to
from 1.900 to 3.129, indicating that the structural model was not contaminated by
multicollinearity and common method biases.
use PBWorks

Test of the structural model

For evaluating model fit and quality, six indices suggested by Kock (2015) were used, which are 495
average path coefficient (APC), average R-squared (ARS), average adjusted R-squared (AARS),
average block variance inflation factors (AVIF), average full collinearity VIF (AFVIF) and
Tenenhaus GoF (GoF). They are briefly described below. For details, refer to Kock (2015). The
APC, ARS and AARS indices are used to assess whether the latent variables that are added to
the model can enhance the overall explanatory quality of the model. The model is shown to have
acceptable explanatory quality when the p values for these indices are equal to or lower than
0.05. The AVIF index determines overall vertical collinearity in the model’s latent variable
blocks, whereas the AFVIF index determines overall full collinearity (vertical plus lateral
collinearity) in the model. Both indices should be adopted if the variables in the model are
measured by use of more than one indicator. The model is said to be lower in multicollinearity if
the indices’ values are equal to or lower than 3.3. The GoF is a measure of a model’s explanatory
power. Because its development was based on Michel Tenenhaus (Tenenhaus et al., 2005), it is
referred to as “Tenenhaus GoF”. For a value lower than 0.1 for the GoF, the explanatory power
of a model is suggested to be too low to be considered acceptable. The higher the value, the
better would be its explanatory power. Table III indicates that the results of all indices are
acceptable. The structural model demonstrated a very good fit to the data.
For confirming whether the independent variables are able to explain the dependent
variable and which relationship stipulated in the hypothesised model is significant, the
coefficient of determination (R2) values, the adjusted R2 values and the standardised beta
coefficients ( b ) were computed (Hair et al., 2014). As shown in Table IV, for each dependent
variable, the adjusted R2 value is very close to the R2 value, implying that the bias of the
non-significant independent variables was very small (Cheng et al., 2016). The results of the
hypothesised model shown in Table IV are fourfold. First, school support and teacher
support explained approximately 25 per cent of the variance in perceived ease of use
(adjusted R2 = 0.248). Among the two independent variables, school support was not
significantly related to perceived ease of use ( b = 0.109, n.s.), whereas teacher support was
positively and significantly related to perceived ease of use ( b = 0.422, p < 0.01), thereby
rejecting H1a and supporting H2a. Second, school support, teacher support and perceived
ease of use explained approximately 59 per cent of the variance in perceived usefulness
(adjusted R2 = 0.588). The three independent variables were all positively and significantly

Variable Composite reliability Cronbach’s alpha AVE FCVIF

School support 0.864 0.861 0.562 1.900

Teacher support 0.812 0.811 0.524 2.515
Perceived ease of use 0.924 0.924 0.636 2.100
Perceived usefulness 0.927 0.927 0.760 3.129
Attitudes towards use 0.894 0.889 0.680 2.543
Table II.
Intention to use 0.925 0.925 0.756 2.922 Results of the test of
the measurement
Notes: AVE = average variances extracted; FCVIF = Full collinearity VIF model
ILS related to perceived usefulness, thereby supporting H1b, H2b and H3a. Moreover, teacher
120,7/8 support ( b = 0.475, p < 0.01) was the strongest determinant, followed by perceived ease of
use ( b = 0.437, p < 0.01) and school support ( b = 0.176, p < 0.05). Third, school support,
teacher support, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness explained approximately 61
per cent of the variance in attitudes towards use of the wiki (adjusted R2 = 0.611). All of the
independent variables, except for school support, were positively and significantly related to
496 attitudes towards use of the wiki, thereby supporting H2c, H3b and H4a and rejecting H1c.
Regarding the magnitude of their explanatory power, perceived usefulness ( b = 0.530,
p < 0.01) was the strongest, followed by perceived ease of use ( b = 0.236, p < 0.01), teacher
support ( b = 0.129, p < 0.05) and school support ( b = 0.027, n.s.). Finally, perceived
usefulness and attitudes towards use of the wiki explained approximately 61 per cent of the
variance in the intention to use the wiki (adjusted R2 = 0.612). Both independent variables
were positively and significantly related to the intention to use the wiki (supporting H4b and
H5), whereas the explanatory power of perceived usefulness ( b = 0.544, p < 0.01) was
stronger than that of attitudes towards use of the wiki ( b = 0.295, p < 0.01).

Model fit and quality indices Value Recommended value Result

Average path coefficient (APC) 0.307*** Significant at 0.05 or below Acceptable

Average R-squared (ARS) 0.518*** Significant at 0.05 or below Acceptable
Average adjusted R-squared (AARS) 0.515*** Significant at 0.05 or below Acceptable
Average block VIF (AVIF) 1.894 Acceptable if # 5, ideally # 3.3 Acceptable
Average full collinearity VIF (AFVIF) 2.518 Acceptable if # 5, ideally # 3.3 Acceptable
Table III. Tenenhaus GoF (GoF) 0.581 Small  0.1, medium  0.25, large  0.36 Acceptable
Model fit and
quality indices Notes: Recommended values are based on Kock (2015); ***p < 0.001

Structural model b R2 Adjusted R2 Hypothesis

DV (perceived ease of use) 0.252 0.248

School support 0.109 H1a Rejected
Teacher support 0.422** H2a Supported
DV (perceived usefulness) 0.590 0.588
School support 0.176* H1b Supported
Teacher support 0.475** H2b Supported
Perceived ease of use 0.437** H3a Supported
DV (attitudes towards use) 0.614 0.611
School support 0.027 H1c Rejected
Teacher support 0.129* H2c Supported
Perceived ease of use 0.236** H3b Supported
Perceived usefulness 0.530** H4a Supported
DV (intention to use) 0.614 0.612
Perceived usefulness 0.544** H4b Supported
Table IV. Attitudes towards use 0.295** H5 Supported
Results of the test of
the structural model Notes: b = Beta coefficient; R2 = Coefficient of determination; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01
Discussion Students’
Practical implications intentions to
This research examined the wiki technology adoption intention by extending the TAM with
school and teacher supports. The wiki technology of interest was PBWorks, which is a
use PBWorks
popular online platform for collaborative group work. Survey data collected from 429 junior
secondary students were used to testify the hypotheses. Some noteworthy findings are
discussed in this and next sections.
The results indicate that teacher support has played a more significant role in the research
497
model than school support. Teacher support has been found to be significantly related to
perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and attitudes towards use of the wiki. Besides its
non-significant relationship with perceived ease of use, school support, as consistent with Marler
et al. (2009), has been found to have no direct relation to attitudes. In a virtual collaborative
environment, supports given by teachers and schools pertaining to the use of the wiki are
technical in nature, such as the provision of computers, the wiki platform, training, etc. Such
technical supports have been regarded as an extrinsic variable, where students having adequate
technical backup would be more motivated to learn and more receptive to using the wiki
(Sánchez et al., 2013). In a school, technical supports are mostly given by the teacher. Such
findings are important because they make a contribution to the emphasis on the training or
teaching aspect underlying the intention-based model. This is echoed with Lai et al. (2016), who
opined that teachers tend to overestimate students’ ability in using technologies resources to
build up learning experiences because students usually exhibit high technical savvy. This
oversimplified view downplays the important role of resource recommendation and learning. As
noted by Chu et al. (2016), teachers should pay more attention to students’ media consumption
habits and awareness, which are expected to affect the latter’s learning performance. Therefore,
compared to the provision of the wiki, training about the use of the wiki and technical service or
assistance in using the wiki are more powerful in promoting the acceptance and use of the wiki.
This further raises the need for equipping teachers with the necessary knowledge and skills to
advise and support students in making good use of the wiki for group work.
Concurring with many other TAM studies (Sánchez et al., 2013), the present study has
found that:
 perceived ease of use influenced perceived usefulness and attitudes;
 perceived usefulness influenced attitudes and intentions; and
 attitudes influenced intentions.

The two behavioural beliefs draw the need for focusing on the choice of wikis. As noted by
Sánchez et al. (2013, p. 152), “when we have an ill-informed, preconceived idea that using a
system is difficult, we might really believe that the system is complicated to use and that the
potential benefits are not worth the effort required to achieve them, without even having tried to
use the system”. The situation would become worse when students encounter a lot of difficulties
without any supports or helps given by the teacher or the school. Therefore, teachers should be
careful in selecting a wiki that is user-friendly and should provide learning and technical advice
that enables students to gain competence and confidence in carrying out the required class
activities (Sánchez et al., 2013). Information literacy and information technology skills have been
recognised as an important motivator that facilitates student learning and achievement (Chu
et al., 2011; Flierl et al., 2018). Experience with an information system should be considered an
important role in research pertaining to technology acceptation (Bourgonjon et al., 2010). By
understanding how the variables affect one’s intention to use the wiki, teachers would be able to
develop more effective experiential learning approaches, such as strengthening students’
ILS recognition memory through peer feedback and self-reflection on their wiki’s experience
120,7/8 (Bennett, 2004; Woo et al., 2013).

Limitations and research implications

The present study does have limitations. First, the research used a self-report questionnaire.
This practice might have the potential to generate common method biases and social
498 desirability. Precautions have therefore been taken to minimise the impacts on data analysis:
 the order of the items has been re-structured in the questionnaire;
 students were informed that their participation was voluntary and they had the
right to withdraw at any time without any penalty;
 all information provided remains confidential and would not affect their academic results;
 reverse-scored questions were included; and
 different point scales were used.

Besides these preliminary steps, the full collinearity VIF value has been computed for each
latent variable to check for the presence of multicollinearity, which is an indicator of
common method biases. As noted in an earlier section, all VIF values were less than the
threshold of 3.3, indicating the absence of common method biases.
Second, the sample used in this research was a non-random sample. The participating
students came from an academically strong public school. The sample is considered to be
representative of other public schools in Hong Kong with similar academic performance.
Moreover, this study used the PLS-SEM, which is known to be appropriate in dealing with
non-normal distribution of data (Kock, 2011; Hair et al., 2014).
The present research has examined the factors affecting the intention to use the wiki.
However, knowledge transfer and sharing is a major function in the wiki-use behaviour (Tay,
2009). Therefore, variables that are essential to explain knowledge sharing intentions may
also exert influences on wiki-use intentions. In a study by Wang and Wei (2011), community
participation was found to be a significant determinant of knowledge sharing intentions.
Community participation refers to one’s engagement in a virtual group with shared interests
and needs for certain social activities. Community participation is one of the four major virtual
community outcomes of community of practice, which is expected to be an intrinsic condition
for knowledge sharing (Chae et al., 2005) and may, therefore, facilitate knowledge-sharing
activities (Chiu et al., 2006). Black (2008) further argued that encouraging individuals to
participate in collaborative knowledge-sharing activities may help promote the application of
the wiki in the wiki community. Although Wang and Wei (2011) examined the effect of other
virtual community outcomes, which were community promotion (i.e. promoting the
community through various means), community trust (i.e. willing to follow the actions from
other members and refraining from opportunistic behaviour) and community identification (i.
e. developing a sense of belonging and loyalty to the community), on knowledge-sharing
intentions, these relationships were found to be non significant. These three virtual
community outcomes are essential in supporting a community. Their non-significant
relationships might be attributed to the sample that consisted of a group of adults, who were
not obliged to demonstrate the behaviour that supports a community. Because of the fact that
students are required to maintain a group work community, such relationships in a student
wiki context may be substantial and are thus worth investigating.
As noted by Kuciapski (2017), a weakness of the TAM is its exclusion of external
variables in the model. The present study has examined the external roles of teacher support
and school support. Other external variables may play a role in an extended model. For
example, perceived enjoyment has been incorporated in the TAM (Teo et al., 2008; Lu et al., Students’
2009; Wojciechowski and Cellary, 2013). It is defined as the extent to which the activity of intentions to
using a system is perceived to be enjoyable (Venkatesh, 2000). Perceived enjoyment can also
be referred to as perceived liking (Al-Khaldi and Al-Jabri, 1998). The enjoyment level of a
use PBWorks
technology may influence one’s interest and eagerness to use it. Therefore, perceived
enjoyment can be seen as an intrinsic motivator. When a Web tool is perceived to be fun and
pleasure, users would be intrinsically motivated to adopt it (Lu et al., 2009). This would also
increase the likelihood that the enjoyable activity would be repeated (Teo, 2008). Studying 499
students’ perception on their enjoyment through the use of the wiki may improve our
understanding of their technology acceptance behaviour.
In addition, in a study of knowledge transfer intentions by Kuciapski, 2017, users’
autonomy (i.e. constant and flexible access to mobile technologies) was found to be a
significant factor affecting performance expectancy, social influence and behavioural
intention. In a student group work context, if students are forced to use a technology, they
may not be interested to use it. Studies have explored the role of such an autonomous (i.e.
self-determined) motivation in shaping the relationship between self-efficacy and effort
(Katz et al., 2014). Moreover, Dubnjakovic (2018), when studying university students’
autonomous information-seeking motivation, found that perceived autonomy support (i.e.
feeling with a sense of choice and freedom for determining what research resources to use)
was significantly related to intrinsic motivation (i.e. information-seeking motivation), which
was, in turn, significantly related to information-seeking effort and enjoyment. In a similar
vein, the selection of an appropriate wiki may also play a role in the process of motivating
students’ intentions to use the wiki tool.
Apart from the views of students, teachers’ perceptions of use of the wiki should also be
explored. For example, teachers’ perceptions of learner autonomy in out-of-class learning are
worth investigating. In a qualitative research, Lai et al. (2016) found that teachers, as opposed
to students, usually adopted a passive approach to learners’ out-of-class use of technology for
language learning. They further argued that for teachers to develop their perceptions of the
needs for a proactive approach, their attitudes towards learners’ use of online authentic
materials as self-study materials should be enhanced to develop their understanding of using
technological resources for learning. Research settings focusing on both teachers and
students can help obtain findings that may have greater robustness than those from a single
data source for self-report estimates.

Conclusions
This research’s contributions are threefold. First, it added two external variables (i.e. school
and teacher supports) to the original TAM to explain the intention to use the wiki.
Specifically, teacher support has been found to play a key role in the extended model.
Second, the study used a sample of junior students in a secondary school. Very few studies
have been conducted in a similar context. Because of the increase in the use of Web 2.0 social
media technologies for teaching and learning, the present study sheds lights on how to
improve junior secondary students’ acceptance of the use of PBWorks (a popular wiki tool)
for setting up a virtual collaborative environment. Third, dissimilar to covariance-based
SEM tests, such as linear structural relations (LISREL), the variance-based PLS-SEM
performs a non-parametric test, which is able to deal with non-normal data. The employed
Factor-Based PLS Type CFM1 in WarpPLS5.0 is a more robust outer model analysis
algorithm than the default regression-based algorithm because the factor-based PLS-SEM
method, similar to covariance-based SEM tools, has taken measurement errors into account
(Kock, 2014). For testing a model with latent variables measured by multiple items, the
ILS factor-based PLS-SEM should be used. As a last concluding comment, this research calls for
120,7/8 more empirical studies in a similar educational setting. When the use of Web tools has
become rampant in core teaching and learning strategies in secondary schools, more
research should be continued in this domain so as to help engage secondary school students
in learning within a virtual collaborative environment.

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ILS Appendix
120,7/8
Variable Item

Perceived ease of The functions of PBWorks were easy to use

use I think that the functions of PBWorks were flexible, such as the functions of review and
return to the last edited version
504 I think that it was easy to browse the website of PBWorks
The benefits of using PBWorks were more than the difficulties in operation
To me, learning how to operate PBWorks was very easy
I think that it was very easy to operate PBWorks to do what I wanted to do
I think that it was very easy to understand the functions of PBWorks
Perceived Using PBWorks could enhance my interest in making the group project report
usefulness Using PBWorks could enhance my participation in making the group project report
Using PBWorks could enhance my ability in conducting the group project
Using PBWorks could help me achieve the goal of making the group project report
Attitudes towards I liked to use PBWorks to share information with group members
use I liked to receive the teacher’s feedback in PBWorks
I liked to receive group members’ feedback in PBWorks
I liked to provide feedback to other group members in PBWorks
Intention to use I am willing to continue to use PBWorks to undertake the group project report
I will continue to use PBWorks in other subjects
In the future, I hope that the school can promote PBWorks to other subjects
I will recommend PBWorks to others
School support The school had enough computers to use
The school’s computers had high speed in access of internet without any barriers
When I met any technical difficulties in using PBWorks, the school provided enough support
I think that the school provided enough training on the use of PBWorks
Overall, I think that the school provided enough support
Teacher support The teacher had enough interaction with students via PBWorks
The teacher regularly reminded students to use PBWorks to complete their group
project report
In addition to the application of PBWorks in group project report, the teacher
Table AI. introduced its other utilities, such as using as an internet discussion forum,
Measures of the information-sharing platform, etc.
latent variables Overall, I think that the teacher provided enough support for PBWorks

About the authors

Dr Eddie W.L. Cheng is an assistant professor at the Department of Social Sciences, The Education
University of Hong Kong. His research interests include online collaborative learning, transfer of e-
learning and technology diffusion. Eddie W.L. Cheng is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: wlcheng@eduhk.hk
Dr Samuel K.W. Chu is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong
Kong. His research interests include social media in education, collaborative inquiry project-based
learning and game-based learning.
Miss Carol S.M. Ma is a postgraduate student at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong
Kong. Her research interests include technology application, collaborative e-learning and technology
acceptance behaviours.

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