Sustained Use of Virtual Meeting Platforms for Classes in the Post-Coronavirus Era: The Mediating Effects of Technology Readiness and Social Presence

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions were forced to turn to online classes that are either recorded or taught live on virtual meeting platforms. Students could, therefore, attend classes from virtually any location using their mobile devices and Internet access. Despite the prolonged pandemic, little attention has been paid to whether offering courses on a virtual meeting platform is sustainable. This study, therefore, explores the antecedents of students’ intentions regarding the sustained use of virtual meeting platforms for academic courses. We investigated the relationship between technology readiness (TR) and perceived social presence (SP) within a virtual communication setting with course satisfaction and sustained use intention. Data were collected via a survey from 525 college students in South Korea who had attended classes using a virtual meeting platform. Serial mediation analysis revealed a pathway in which SP and course satisfaction in series fully mediate the positive relationship between technology readiness and sustainability. This study discusses the implications in relation to the sustainability of virtual technology-based courses as a replacement of live classroom-based courses from a user perspective. Further research is needed to understand users’ negative experiences of attending courses on virtual meeting platforms.