Technology Acceptance of Navid Learning Management System in the Iranian Medical English Courses under the COVID-19 Pandemic

This mixed method study endeavored to solicit the perspectives of Iranian collegiate students passing the obligatory course of medical English through Navid Learning Management System and its acceptance during COVID19 pandemic. Utilizing Technology Acceptance Model, this study also sought to examine the possible effect gender, academic degree, instructional mode, and elearning duration in LMS may have on the participants’ attitudes. An online survey was employed to gather data from 78 Iranian students. Semistructured interviews with ten participants were conducted as well to shed more light on the quantitative data regarding main advantages and disadvantages of medical English learning through Navid. The data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics along with inductive thematic analysis, respectively. Findings revealed that Iranian collegiate medical students viewed Navid as a comprehensive elearning platform to be favorable in terms of its system/service quality, student/educational service quality, and perceived satisfaction, but its perceived satisfaction was not aligned with their needs. Moreover, neither the individual variables, (viz., age and academic degree), nor the instructional variables (viz., instructional mode and elearning duration) were predictors of the discrepancies among the participants in their perspectives and acceptance of Navid. Learning ubiquitously and lacking face to face communication were the main advantage and disadvantage of learning medical English through Navid, respectively. Results revealed that although under the Covid19 pandemic the acceptance of Navid and students’ satisfaction with its use might not be related to the individual and instructional variables in the medical English courses, it might not be the case in others.