The Impact of Cognitive Absorption Dimensions on the Appropriation of ICTs among students of Public Universities in the Casablanca-Settat region, Morocco

Over the past two decades, the use of Internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the classroom as part of the learning environment has grown considerably. The value of the ICT in education (ICTE) is now widely recognized and accepted. The promptness of development in the digital has put forth pressure on organizations, particularly higher education institutions, to integrate ICT in teaching activities as well as in the entire university environment. These pressures have involved all the actors in higher education, who are increasingly improving the quality of their services. Within the same vein, teachers and learners are currently taking courses in a hybrid mode, to be acquainted with the new learning strategies. Previous research has focused heavily on studying the educational performance of students with regard to the use of ICT independently of the contribution of cognition and appropriation of ICT in student performance. Accordingly, this research explores the impact of the dimensions of cognitive absorption (CA), inspired by the flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), on the appropriation of ICT. We conducted a quantitative study among students of Moroccan public universities in the Casablanca-Settat region, and used the structural equation method (SEM), through the SMART PLS 4.0 software. The study used data collected from a sample of 184 students. In our study, the structural equation modeling revealed that CA has a significant and positive impact on ICT appropriation among public higher education students. The findings indicate that an exploration of CA in the Moroccan higher education environment is important to understand students’ learning needs for better educational performance.

Over the past two decades, the use of Internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the classroom as part of the learning environment has grown considerably. The value of the ICT in education (ICTE) is now widely recognized and accepted. The promptness of development in the digital has put forth pressure on organizations, particularly higher education institutions, to integrate ICT in teaching activities as well as in the entire university environment. These pressures have involved all the actors in higher education, who are increasingly improving the quality of their services. Within the same vein, teachers and learners are currently taking courses in a hybrid mode, to be acquainted with the new learning strategies. Previous research has focused heavily on studying the educational performance of students with regard to the use of ICT independently of the contribution of cognition and appropriation of ICT in student performance. Accordingly, this research explores the impact of the dimensions of cognitive absorption (CA), inspired by the flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), on the appropriation of ICT. We conducted a quantitative study among students of Moroccan public universities in the Casablanca-Settat region, and used the structural equation method (SEM), through the SMART PLS 4.0 software. The study used data collected from a sample of 184 students. In our study, the structural equation modeling revealed that CA has a significant and positive impact on ICT appropriation among public higher education students. The findings indicate that an exploration of CA in the Moroccan higher education environment is important to understand students’ learning needs for better educational performance.

Cognitive absorption Flow theory Appropriation of ICT in Education Educational performance University students Morocco

Cognitive absorption Flow theory Appropriation of ICT in Education Educational performance University students Morocco