E-learning Adoption Among Female Students In Higher Education:Empirical Evidence In China

Despite wide research interest and literature coverage in Western literature, e-learning acceptance as well as perceived benefits and challenges are yet to be understood, particularly in the case of China. The main research goal is to increase the knowledge and understanding about the ways in which work and family conflict, aspirations to progress to senior positions and socio-cultural norms impact Chinese female career professionals’ perceptions towards e-learning behavioural intention, acceptance and use.The research project was designed as a qualitative study of multiple cases containing strong features of narrative research, and was conducted with the participation of Chinese female students from a university based in Wuhan. One of the case studies part-time MBA Chinese students, two of the cases are with Chinese female faculty and students enrolled in bachelor, masters and PhD level, and the forth case is a study of gender differences including both male and females students.The research material includes face-to-face in-depth interviews, and quasi-experiment and survey questionnaire. Each article provides a viewpoint into promoting the argument that that e-learning can help empower Chinese female career professionals reach their career goals while balancing the multiple responsibilities of being a woman in society of a mother, caregiver to the elderly, employee or employer.The study shows that Chinese females generally positively perceive e-learning as a tool to balance multiple responsibilities, however, much concern exists around the issues of e-learning credibility, trustworthiness, lack of networking, delayed responses, lack of motivation in online settings and adequate skills to engage in e-learning technology. Concurrently, the findings question the sharp gender division between female and male employees in senior positions as well as the gender stereotypes that hinder females from interacting with technology, in terms of gadgets, education or career. These cases are grounded in the conceptual frameworks of the technology acceptance model and cognitive behavioural studies. The findings of the research project provide an insight into the attitudes of Chinese female career professionals towards e-learning acceptance and provide knowledge that opens up new and wide opportunities to tap into this educational market niche. This would be useful in helping policy makers revisit existing gender policies to realign with current economic and social needs.