Nexus between integrating technology readiness 2.0 index and students’ e‑library services adoption amid the COVID‑19 challenges: Implications based on the theory of planned behavior

The advent of the pandemic COVID‑19 has resulted in a global crisis that resulted in the closure of universities and educational institutions worldwide. This study aims to explore the determinants of students’ intention towards e‑library services usage amid the challenging time of the COVID‑19 pandemic. This paper reviews the technology‑oriented individual attitude based on four dimensions of the technology readiness 2.0 index factors, which affect medical students’ perspectives.

The authors provided a self‑administered questionnaire to medical students to investigate their e‑library adoption attitude during the COVID‑19 crisis. The authors distributed 542 questionnaires, received 361 complete responses and analyzed the data through path modeling/partial least squares structural equations modeling technique (PLS‑SEM) with the smart PLS software version 3.3.3. The structural equation‑modelling tool permits the estimation of results.

The main finding revealed that medical students have a positive and explicit approach to use the services available at the e‑library. Technology use and online services helped students continue their educational needs in the advent of the current pandemic COVID‑19. Attitude and subjective norms have significant influence and are strong predictors of intention. However, due to inadequate support for the government side, the perceived behavioural control has an insignificant impact on intention. This paper indicated one of the pioneers investigating the determinants of e‑library adoption among medical students based on technology‑oriented personality traits, employing the four dimensions of the technology readiness 2.0 index during the challenges of the COVID‑19 outbreak.

The study’s findings provide useful insight that offers valuable insights to implement specific strategies from the government officials to address medical students’ uncertainties and increase the technology adoption amid the COVID‑19 pandemic in medical education for developing nations.