The role of personality traits and online academic self-efficacy in acceptance, actual use and achievement in Moodle

Informed by the educational conditions shaped by the novel coronavirus pandemic and an increased reliance upon online learning solutions and technologies, this article examines the role of personality traits and online academic self-efficacy in acceptance, actual use and achievement in Moodle on a socially distanced asynchronous university course in Japan. With a sample of 149 students the study adopts SEM path-analysis model testing procedures and shows that agreeableness and conscientious have positive direct effects on online academic self-efficacy in addition to positive indirect effects on the acceptance of Moodle. Moreover agreeableness and conscientious had an indirect effect on course achievement while none of the five-factor model personality traits had an influence on actual Moodle use. An improved respecified model further affirmed the importance of agreeableness and conscientious and their role in online academic self-efficacy, the acceptance and actual use of Moodle and course achievement outcomes. Fourteen percent of the observed variance in course achievement was explainable through the respecified model. The discussion highlights the implications to be drawn from the data in relation to the current educational landscape from the perspective of the educator.