Attitude to Information and Communication Technologies Use and Attrition Intention among Female Distance Learning Students

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to determine the causal relationship between female distance learning students’ attitudes to technology and attrition intention in distance learning programmes.

Methods: Leveraging a quantitative research design, 433 female distance learning students were randomly sampled from four learning centres in Northeastern Nigeria. The analysis of measurement and structural models of the data collected through online questionnaires was done with the aid of SPSS IBM version 29.0 and Smart PLS software version 4.0.9.2.

Results: The study found that technology behaviour has a significant causal relationship with attrition intention among female distance learning students. Meanwhile, technology affection and cognitive attitudes had no significant causal relationship with attrition intention among female distance learning students.

Discussion: This implies that students’ behaviour toward technology use in terms of their access to technology resources contributed to the increase in intention to drop out of the distance learning programme in Northeastern Nigeria.

Limitations: The findings might not be generalisable to other regions, especially southern Nigeria.

Conclusions: The distance education stakeholders can use this study’s outcome to devise ways of improving the completion rate among female learners, especially.