Influence of the Affordance of Online Learning Platform Technology on the Entrepreneurial Behaviors of Students in Engineering and Technology Universities

Abstract

Information technology-based online teaching guarantees sustained teaching activities and ensures the sharing of abundant online educational resources and the convenient use of various online teaching tools. Online learning platforms possess massive teaching resources and solid teacher qualifications, which evidently enhance the learning efficiency of online learners, exert a direct effect on creating entrepreneurial knowledge of students in engineering and technology universities, and motivate their entrepreneurial behaviors. In this research, the scientific problem raised was the influence mechanism of the technological availability of online learning platforms on the entrepreneurial behaviors of students in engineering and technology universities. A questionnaire regarding the influence of the affordance of online learning platform technology on entrepreneurial behaviors was designed on the basis of technology affordance theory. Next, the influencing degrees of two component factors (educational and social affordability) of technology affordance on entrepreneurial behaviors were analyzed via a quantile regression model. Then, the moderating role played by online learning interaction in the positive promoting effect of technology affordance on entrepreneurial behaviors was measured. Results revealed that the overall Cronbach’s α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.905, and the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value was 0.853, indicating their favorable validity and reliability. The technology affordance (social and educational affordances) of online education platforms exerted a positive promoting effect on the entrepreneurial behaviors of students in engineering and technology universities. Learning interaction regulated such a promoting effect. Our results are of important reference values for extending the technology affordance perspective generated under the background of organizational reform, fulling mining the potentials of emerging technical tools on online education platforms and determining the influencing mechanism of the technology affordance of online education platforms on the entrepreneurial behaviors of students in engineering and technology universities.