Social Virtual Worlds (SVWs) are increasingly being used in education; however, little is known about how personal motivation affects engagement in online learning courses (e-learning). This article focuses on Second Life which is one of the better known SVW platforms and allows relationships to develop amongst people who share similar interests and/or activities The aims of this study are twofold: (1) to analyse the motivation of Second Life users with regard to e-learning; and (2) to propose a model that explains and predicts the adoption of Second Life in this context. This model has been defined under the postulates of the Uses and Gratification theory (Blumler & Katz, 1974; Swanson, 1987) which comprises the seven constructs of convenience, entertainment, socialising, status seeking, information seeking, sharing experience, and continuance intention. A web-based survey is reported. Findings confirm the positive influence of convenience, sharing experiences, and entertainment on the intention to continue to use Second Life e-learning, and the positive impact of status, and information seeking on sharing experiences. Implications of this study are considered under the three categories of academic, managerial, and technological perspectives. An analysis of the motivations of Second Life use in education and training.A proposal of a model that explains the adoption of Second Life in education.An identification of the factors that influence successful on continuance intention.An application of the Uses and Gratifications framework.

This study focuses on students’ behavioral intention to use Open Source Software (OSS). The article examines how students, who were trained in OSS, are motivated to continue using it. A conceptual model based on Self-Determination Theory and the Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) was defined in order to test the behavioral intention to use OSS, comprising six constructs: (1) autonomy, (2) competence, (3) relatedness, (4) perceived ease of use, (5) perceived usefulness and (6) behavioral intention to use. A survey was designed for data collection. The participants were recent secondary school graduates, and all of them had received mandatory OSS training. A total of 352 valid responses were used to test the proposed structural model, which was performed using the Lisrel software. The results clearly confirmed the positive influence of the intrinsic motivations; autonomy and relatedness, to improve perceptions regarding the usefulness and ease of use of OSS, and; therefore, on behavioral intention to use OSS. In addition, the implications and limitations of this study are considered.