Digital educational environments in higher education: an organizational perspective on contextual predictors of e-learning attitudes

Students’ attitudes towards e-learning are primarily determined by the context in which e-learning is administered in higher education. Therefore, this study aims to explore the influence of digital educational environments, including learning process satisfaction, learning motivation in distance education, support for learning activity, and assessment and evaluation, on student attitudes towards e-learning regarding the tendency to use technology, satisfaction, motivation, and usability. Employing a quantitative design, the study was conducted on 381 undergraduate students enrolled in online courses at universities. The research model was hypothesized to investigate the extent to which four dimensions in digital educational environments predict four key aspects of students’ attitudes in e-learning. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data. According to the results, support for learning activities within digital educational environments consistently emerged as the most influential factor across all dependent variables by enhancing students’ tendency to technology use, satisfaction, and perceptions of usability. However, assessment and evaluation exhibited a bidirectional role, which was negatively associated with the tendency in technology use, yet positively affected satisfaction and perception of usability. On the other hand, learning process satisfaction and learning motivation in distance education demonstrated limited or non-significant effects in most instances, except for their substantial contribution to increasing student motivation. The results highlight the significance of context in e-learning ecosystems of the organization and provide practical implications for designing effective e-learning systems and strategies that align with students’ needs and preferences in diverse educational settings.