In the past few years, educators started using synchronous video conferencing software like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or Zoom, among others, in addition to traditional teaching methodologies. Therefore, this contribution examines the students’ perceptions about the functionality and interactivity features of these technologies, as well as the facilitating conditions of a higher education institution (HEI) in a Southern European context. A survey questionnaire integrated valid measures that were drawn from the relevant literature on technology adoption. The analysis was carried out through SmartPLS to shed light on the causal paths affecting the students’ intentions to continue using synchronous technologies in higher education. The results suggest that the students feel that the functionality of the conferencing software in terms of their ease-to-use and efficient designs, as well as their HEI’s facilitating conditions, including the technical support they are given, and their accessibility to adequate resources, are affecting their intentions to continue using these interactive technologies, to achieve their learning outcomes.

1. The functionality and interactivity of video
conferencing technologies:
A synchronous technology adoption
model
By Mark Anthony Camilleri & Adriana Caterina Camilleri
International Conference of Educational Technology Conference
(ICETM2022)
17th December 2022

2. Content of presentation
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology
• Data analysis
• Conclusions

3. Introduction
• After the outbreak of the Corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic,
education institutions including universities and colleges were
expected to follow their regulatory institutions’ preventative
measures including social distancing policies and hygienic procedures,
to prevent contagion [1].
• In many cases, HEIs continued to deliver their educational services [2]
through learning management systems (LMS) and via synchronous
conferencing technologies [3].
• Very often they utilized Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or Zoom, among
others, in addition to traditional teaching methodologies.

4. Research objectives: This contribution integrates a technical functionality
construct (that is related to the electronic service quality literature) [6],
with perceived interactivity [7], as well with facilitating conditions and
behavioral intentions to use technologies [8, 9] (the latter two are drawn
from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology -
UTAUT/UTAUT2).
Specifically, the research questions are:
• (i) Which factors and to what extent are they affecting the students’
intentions to use synchronous technologies in education?
• (ii) Are the functionality features and interactivity attributes affecting
the students’ engagement with virtual conferencing software?
• (iii) Are the facilitating conditions (at home and at university) affecting
their dispositions to use them?

5. Literature Review
• Web designers are expected to create and develop high quality online
domains that are functional and appealing for their users.
• Many authors argue that the functionality (in terms of instrumental utility,
technical capability and the degree of ease with which users engage with
them, with minimal efforts) [12, 17], can have a positive influence on the
individuals’ intentions to continue using them. This leads to the following
hypothesis:
• H1: The technical functionality features of video conferencing
technologies significantly affect the individuals’ intentions to use them.

6. • Many researchers sought to explore two-way interactions among online users
[28]. They strived in their endeavours to identify key attributes of computer
mediated communications by using different constructs including perceived
behavioral control, perceived responsiveness, connectedness, perceived
personalization, real time interactions, personalization and playfulness, among
others [29, 30].
• The perceived interactivity of technologies has a significant impact on the
individuals’ acceptance and use of certain technologies [31], as interactive media
can facilitate online conversations amongst them [32]. Hence the interactivity
features of video conferencing software can have a significant effect on the
students’ intentions to use them to improve their learning outcomes. Hence, this
research explores the following hypothesis:
• H2: The individuals’ perceptions about the interactivity attributes of video
conferencing technologies significantly affect their intentions to use them.

7. • Today’s students would surely benefit from the latest computer
infrastructures, ubiquitous devices like tablets and smart phones, as
well as from a seamless internet connectivity on campus and at
home, to join course instructors and their peers in virtual lectures [36,
37].
• In addition, the technical assistance from a help desk can have a
positive effect on the students’ perceptions and attitudes towards
certain technologies like WebCT [38]. These facilitating conditions
could impact on the students’ readiness to use the video
conferencing programs [8, 9]. Thus, the researchers hypothesize that:
• H3: The facilitating conditions significantly affect the individuals’
intentions to use video conferencing technologies.

8. “The formulated
hypotheses of this
research”

9. Methodology
The measures:
• The questionnaire featured the survey questions drawn from measures
that were tried and tested in academia (the items are illustrated in Table
1). It also comprised socio-demographic variables including age, gender
and experience with the use of video conferencing technologies.
• The respondents could complete the questionnaire within a few minutes.
The responses to the survey questions were coded through a 5-point
Likert scale, where 1 represented ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 strongly agree,
whilst 3 signalled a neutral position.

10. “The
measuring
items that
were used in
this study are
featured in
Table 1”

11. The sample:
• The respondents were registered students in a Southern European university.
• A cover letter comprising a link to this study’s survey questionnaire was disseminated via
email to more than 11,000 students. The recipients of this email were following full time,
part time and distance learning courses.
• After a week, there were 117 responses to this survey. There were four
questionnaires that were not included in the analysis as they had missing values
(n=113 valid responses).
• The frequency table reported that there were seventy-one females (n=71) and
forty-two males (n=42) who took part in this study.
• The respondents were classified into five age groups (18-23; 24-29; 30-35; 36-41
and over 42 years of age). Most of the research participants were between 18
and 23 years of age (n=82), followed by those between 24 and 29 years of age
(n=11).
• The majority of respondents (n=107) revealed that they have been using remote
technologies, including asynchronous LMS as well as video conferencing
technologies, during COVID-19.

12. Data analysis
The descriptive statistics:
• Generally, the respondents agreed with the survey’s statements as
there were high mean scores above the midpoint (3).
• Whilst F2 reported the lowest mean score (M=4.021), the highest mean
scores were registered for PI1 (M=4.331), I1 (M=4.312) and F1 (M=4.156).
• There were small variances in the participants’ responses.
• The values of the standard deviation (SD) varied from 0.8 (for F2) to 1.09 (for
PI1), as featured in Table 2.

13. Construct reliability and validity

14. • The PLS algorithm shed light on the results from the outer loadings,
composite reliability, average variance extracted (AVE) and discriminant
validity values.
• The composite reliability values were between 0.75 and 0.866 (CR>0.7).
• The values of the average variance extracted (AVE) were higher than 0.6
(AVE>0.5).
• The square root of the average variance extracted (AVE) (in bold) for each
construct was greater than the correlation of the other constructs, in the
same column, as per Fornell-Larcker criterion [40] (thereby confirming the
discriminant validity).
• The results from the Heterotrait Monotrait (HTMT) criterion (the values
featured in the circled figures, in the right-hand side) have reconfirmed the
discriminant validity of the constructs (HTMT<0.9) [41].
Interpretation of results from SEM-PLS

15. • The results indicated that there were no collinearity issues as the
variance inflation factors (VIFs<3.3).
• The results reported that R2 was 0.577.
• Evidently, the constructs that were used in this study predicted 57.7% of the
participants’ intentions to continue using the conferencing technologies.
• The functionality construct had the highest effect on the participants’
intentions to use the technology, where f2=0.487. There were other
effects between facilitating conditions-intentions (f2=0.332) and between
perceived interactivity-intentions (f2=0.233).
• A bootstrapping procedure was used to explore the statistical significance
and relevance of this research model’s path coefficients. Table 3
summarises the findings.

17. Figure 1 depicts the
explanatory power of
this research model.
It illustrates the total
effects, outer
loadings and the
coefficient of
determination (R2 ).

18. Conclusions
• COVID-19 has had an impact on the delivery of higher educational
services. It disrupted the education of millions of students in different
contexts. However, on a positive note, it has opened a window of
opportunity for higher education stakeholders.
• The unexpected pandemic and its preventative measures have triggered
HEIs (and their course instructors) to experiment with virtual education
technologies and to engage with their students in real time, through
video conferencing software.

19. Implications, limitations of study and future
research avenues
Theoretical implications: This contribution revealed that the functionality features have a
highly significant effect on the individuals’ intentions to use conferencing software. It
confirmed that university students appreciated their ease of use, design, instrumental utility
and technical capabilities to continue their learning journeys.
Moreover, the interactivity attributes of these synchronous technologies as well as the
facilitating conditions (at home and at university) were also having a significant effect on the
students’ intentions to use continue using them in the future.
Managerial implications: The integration of synchronous education technologies in higher
education may be accelerated in the foreseeable future as the utilization of remote
communications could add value to traditional teaching methodologies in a post COVID-19
era. Therefore, HEIs ought to invest in online learning infrastructures, resources and
facilitating conditions, for the benefit of their students and faculty employees.
Limitations: Although, the number of respondents was relatively low when compared to the
targeted research participants, the results confirmed that the measures that were used in this
study were reliable and valid.
Future research directions: Prior studies have never incorporated the same measures that
were used in this empirical investigation. Prospective research could validate this study’s
measures in other contexts.

22. Thanks for your attention.
Mark.A.Camilleri@um.edu.mt
Latest publications:
Camilleri, M. A., & Camilleri, A. C. (2022). Remote learning via video conferencing
technologies: Implications for research and practice. Technology in Society, 68, 101881.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101881
Camilleri, M. A., & Camilleri, A. C. (2022). Learning from anywhere, anytime: Utilitarian
motivations and facilitating conditions for mobile learning. Technology, Knowledge and
Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-022-09608-8
Camilleri, M. A., & Camilleri, A. C. (2021). The acceptance of learning management systems
and video conferencing technologies: Lessons learned from COVID-19. Technology,
Knowledge and Learning, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-021-09561-y