Open AccessWhatsApp Web for academic purposes in times of covid-19
Author(s) -
Nataly Guiñez-Cabrera,
Katherine Mansilla-Obando
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
apertura
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1665-6180
pISSN - 2007-1094
DOI - 10.32870/ap.v13n2.2084
Subject(s) - unified theory of acceptance and use of technology , perspective (graphical) , covid-19 , web 2.0 , field (mathematics) , social media , psychology , computer science , qualitative research , knowledge management , social influence , world wide web , the internet , sociology , social psychology , social science , medicine , disease , mathematics , pathology , artificial intelligence , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pure mathematics
One of the most used communication tools is WhatsApp, which increased its use due to covid-19, along with other social networks. In the educational field, students are also increasingly adopting this application for academic purposes from their computers called WhatsApp Web. However, more knowledge is needed about the factors that influence the acceptance and use of this social network. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand from the perspective of students the factors of acceptance and use of WhatsApp Web for academic purposes during the covid-19 pandemic. A qualitative methodology was used to achieve this objective, through fourteen semistructural interviews with students from various disciplines and universities. The findings of this study were analyzed with the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Where a fifth factor teamworkwas incorporated, being additional to the factors already existing in this theory (the expectation of performance, the expectation of effort, the social influence and the facilitating conditions). This study provides new insights as it is a pioneering research that UTAUT uses to interpret the acceptance and use of WhatsApp Web for academic purposes.