Students portal usage model based on social cognitive theory in Saudi Arabia universities

Abstract

Student portal plays a vital role in the advancement of education system. In particular, student portal has been utilised to complement the formal education system by making knowledge and services available to all users. Hence, student portal is considered as a gateway that integrates information from different sources accessible to all the students based on their needs. Although most Saudi Arabia universities are currently equipped with good ICT infrastructure, the usage of student portal remains low. Therefore, there is a need to improve students’ portal based on specific requirements deemed appropriate. This research aims to formulate a model for student portals usage that incorporates factors that affect students’ engagement with the portal. This research employed Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) theory to build the model based on students’ expectations and perceptions. Feedback gathered from survey involving 399 students from four Saudi Arabia universities were analysed using Smart-Pls quantitative analysis tools. The findings from this research revealed that eight out of ten factors were found to be significant and positively affect the students’ portal usage. These factors include user satisfaction, design, availability of content, user intention, efficiency, portal user support, portal service quality and interaction. The enhancement of students’ portal usage based on the above significant factors will assist universities in increasing their portal usage as well as the corresponding services provided.