This study explores the extent to which subjective norm beliefs of online learners shape perceptions of ease-of-use and usefulness for the use of course delivery systems. Subjective norm beliefs represent the influence that instructors, mentors, and peers have on students to use the course delivery system. The results show that instructor and mentor influences are significant contributors to students’ perceived usefulness of the course delivery system. However, only mentor influence is significant to students’ perceived ease-of-use of the learning system. These results indicate the importance of the instructors’ roles in shaping impressions of the value of using the course delivery systems and the potential underutilization of peer influence to shape behavior in online courses.

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Demei Shen is a doctoral student in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her research interest includes social computing, social learning and motivation in online learning environments. She may be contacted at dmsry6@mizzou.edu.

James Laffey is a Professor in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Laffey’s research interest includes technology appropriation, social computing, and social learning. He may be contacted at Laffeyj@missouri.edu.

Yimei Lin is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Graduate Institute of Telecommunications at the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan. Her research interests have been focused on cyberology, mobile learning, ubiquitous computing, and technology appropriation. She can be contacted at telyml@ccu.edu.tw.

Xinxin Huang is a doctoral student in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her research interest includes asynchronous and synchronous online collaborative learning, mobile devices for teaching and learning and social computing. She may be contacted at xhvv2@mizzou.edu.