Users' intrinsic and extrinsic drivers to use a web-based educational environment

• This article clarifies web-based learning tool acceptance and enduring usage.
• Expressive aesthetics is an important antecedent to usefulness but less to satisfaction.
• Classical aesthetics is an important antecedent to satisfaction but less to usefulness.
• Classical aesthetics weakens the influence of expressive aesthetics on satisfaction.
• Aesthetics is examined by analysing the interacting effects of exploratory behaviour.

The aim of this study is to gain further insight into the drivers that help in the design of desirable web-based educational environments. The specific objectives are twofold: (1) to explore the main drivers of learners' responses, in terms of their ongoing patronage and recommendation of learning tools to others; and (2) to clarify the significance of exploratory behaviour as a moderator that contributes to users' e-loyalty. Drawing on the fields of design, non-economic satisfaction, and e-loyalty, this quasi-experimental study hinges on analysis of survey data to assess college students' online usage experiences. Aesthetics and usefulness have significant effects on perceptions of the extent to which students' goals and desires are met, and, by extension, extrinsic outcomes and e-loyalty. Making an educational tool simpler to use, however, has hardly any effect on users' perceptions of its usefulness. Furthermore, when usage is more instrumental, expressive issues weaken users' satisfaction-based processes. Our research also indicates that individual differences based on variety-seeking personality traits play an important role in users' decisions to accept e-learning tools. This article may therefore act as a springboard for further empirical research, as well as clarifying and examining the nature of e-learning tools' enduring usage amongst college students.