Orhan Gemikonakli

Although the use of online learning environments has been increasingly integrated into teaching and learning of university students worldwide, the global pandemic COVID-19 has urged almost the exclusive use of these environments for at least temporary periods. Since there may be situations that disrupt the efficiency of education-teaching environments such as a pandemic, it is expected that university teaching will continue either in a mixed-mode combining face-to-face and online learning or in some cases by online learning only. Hence, it is essential to assess the acceptance of online environments by university students. This study assesses the effect of motivation on the acceptance of such environments. It concentrates on examining the effect of motivation regarding teaching materials on the acceptance of online learning environments. For this, while the motivation concept related to the teaching materials is based on the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction model developed by Keller (1987), the acceptance of online learning environments is based on the Technology Acceptance Model developed by Davis (1989). The results obtained are discussed within the framework of the relevant literature.

It is anticipated that there will be differences in the use of the Internet and mobile technologies in accessing information amongst the new generations (digital natives) depending on the development level of the country they live in. Globalization further reinforces these differences. In this study, these differences are investigated for three countries having different levels of development: the United Kingdom, Malta, and Turkey. A total of 443 participants are chosen from university universities studying in different departments in 2017-2018 spring term. Variance analysis (ANOVA) has been used in identifying the differences between the study groups' access to information of the three countries. Findings show differences between the three countries in the use of social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. In addition, there are differences in the use of mobile technology devices Notebook, Tablet and Smartphones in accessing information. Finally, differences were identified in the use of information sources in accessing information. These differences are in the use of search engines, wiki, social networks, blogs, and digital libraries. No differences were found in terms of digital newspapers. The findings are discussed comparatively with reference to the scholarly work done in the field and recommendations are given.