Predicting teachers’ generative and receptive use of an educational portal by intention, attitude and self-reported use

• An educational portal can be used for different purposes: receptive and generative.
• Receptive use: downloads, pageviews, logins; generative use: uploads or reactions.
• Questionnaire data is coupled to longitudinally collected use behavior.
• Acceptance measures predict teachers’ receptive use of an educational portal.
• Uploaders differ fundamentally from non-uploaders.

This study takes off where most acceptance studies stop, namely by investigating the link between acceptance and different aspects of actual usage of an educational portal. Both receptive (logins, downloads and pageviews) and generative use behavior (uploads and reactions) of 864 teachers was collected on two occasions, and linked to their responses on an acceptance questionnaire based upon C-TAM-TPB. Two research questions were put forward: (1) which dimensions of actual use are predicted by attitude, intention and self-reported use; and (2) can C-TAM-TPB discern uploaders from non-uploaders. Regression analyses showed that receptive use (logins, downloads, pages viewed) was predicted by attitude, intention and self-reported use (variance explained in the range .13–.16). Generative use (uploading and reacting) was not explained by these self-reported measures (Adj. R2 .01 and .04). Uploaders scored higher on all use parameters and almost all scales. A logistic regression showed that the more positive teachers’ attitudes towards the portal and the higher their perceptions of control; the more likely they will upload information. This study is a call for more research on the factors that influence different dimensions of actual educational technology use, and should be an onset for more research on the link between intention and behavior in different settings, user populations, and technologies.