1 Introduction

The global COVID-19 crisis will have a broad and far-reaching impact on the reform of the education system (Davidovitch & Belichenko, 2018; Eger, 2015; Fewkes & McCabe, 2012; Shodiyev, 2022). Using social networking sites in education has become an important research topic that should be considered and utilized by educators to cope with learners’ needs and demands in the era of teaching interventions. Since the COVID-19 crisis has had a global impact, traditional face-to-face classroom teaching has gradually been replaced by online teaching (Almaiah et al., 2020). With technological changes and evolution, Facebook and social media have received increasing attention with the advantages of creating a safe and healthy online learning community, providing curriculum design, sharing teaching resources, conducting remote educational activities, and promoting teacher-student interaction (Chugh & Ruhi, 2018; Niu, 2019). Many educational institutions have been forced to move their operations online to ensure the safety of students and staff. The shift to online learning has presented many challenges, including the need for students to have access to computers and the internet (Mattar et al., 2022). However, it has also provided new opportunities for learning and education. Therefore, despite the great economic impacts, the pandemic has highlighted the need for innovative solutions and adaptation to new education methods for learning. Educators must rethink their teaching strategies and adopt new technologies to meet the changing needs and expectations of their students (Farias-Gaytan et al., 2022).

Compared with other social media platforms, Facebook is the most popular and has become an important tool for promoting student interaction and communication (Shodiyev, 2022). This platform plays an important role in supporting dynamics, collaboration, and interdisciplinary learning (Ean & Lee, 2016). According to statistics from the Taiwan network information center, Facebook ranks first among Taiwan’s social networks, with more than 19 million monthly active users and a penetration rate of 82.6%, and the most active users are millennials and generation (TWNIC, 2020). Facebook is an effective teaching exchange tool that effectively promotes student-centered learning, and undergraduate students generally have higher intentions to accept its educational use (Niu, 2019; Liu & Yu, 2019). Therefore, using Facebook in the teaching process is valuable for improving colleges’ teaching quality and professionalism and students’ ability to apply technology (John & Govender, 2020; Wu & Wang, 2020). Furthermore, Facebook has advantages over learning management systems (LMS) (Kreijns et al., 2013). The shortcomings of LMS include the lack of space to connect with society. Moreover, universities in developing countries are unable to successfully employ LMS due to a lack of technology facilities and financial support and low technological literacy among teachers and students (Al-Azawei, 2019). Therefore, in the current study, Facebook was used as a teaching platform to improve effective learning among undergraduate hospitality students and show how it may influence students’ attitudes and behavioral intentions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant challenges for the tourism and hospitality education system, but by adapting to new technologies and focusing on sustainable learning and safety, educators can continue to thrive in the post-COVID-19 world. Furthermore, by leveraging the power of online learning, this study makes several potential contributions. First, this study explores the process through which hospitality students accept Facebook. Thoms (2011) suggested that the future of higher education should include more relevant analysis of technology applications, especially the variable of social interaction (Almaiah et al., 2020); in particular, the new technology has been widely adopted by Gen Z, who view the internet and social media as critical parts of people’s daily lives and socialization, with frequent utilization becoming increasingly common (Szymkowiak et al., 2021). Thus, this study creatively introduced social interaction as an important mediator that affects technology usage behavior in the teaching process. Second, this study emphasizes that hospitality students’ Facebook usage intention is affected by both interpersonal interaction and human-computer interaction. The advantages of technology itself and interpersonal interactions create a good experience during the pandemic, and although the global significance of the impacts of the pandemic is declining, a new learning pattern has been built (Turnbull et al., 2021). This study contributes by highlighting this gap and innovatively introduces the exchange of information, which plays a moderating role between social interaction and usage intention. In conclusion, in this study, a mediation-moderation model of Facebook acceptance in hospitality education is constructed. Furthermore, the study results will provide a theoretical reference for applying technologies such as Facebook in hospitality education. Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework proposed in this research.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Research framework and hypothesis

Full size image

2 Hypothesis

2.1 Technology acceptance model

The technology acceptance model (TAM) is based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA) to explain the acceptance of new technology, including exploring acceptance behavior on Facebook (Teo, 2016). According to TAM, behavior is determined by attitude and intention of use. Perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) are the two core variables of TAM, both of which affect attitude (Davis, 1989; Gan, 2017). Usage intention usually refers to the subjective possibility that an individual produces a specific behavior, which can better predict the use of behavior (Hsiao et al., 2015).

TAM has been fully promoted in the field of educational technology to examine different user types (such as teachers, students) and different technology (such as online learning systems and social media) and research the acceptance degree of a specific technology in education (Lai, 2020; Tao et al., 2019; Wu & Chen, 2017). Sharma, Joshi, and Sharma (2016) discussed resource sharing, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, collaboration and social influence as the influencing factors for Facebook usage intention in higher education. Moorthy et al. (2019) found that the determinants of Facebook usage intention are perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment and self-efficacy. However, TAM ignores the key factors that affect its interpretation in a certain context, and corresponding external variables should be added to make the model more convincing (Phuong & Vinh, 2017; Yang et al., 2017). Educators and researchers should recognize that communication and interaction are important teaching tools in educational practice (Mejia, 2020). As an innovative tool used in the learning and teaching environment, Facebook solves the limitation of time and space and helps teachers and students exchange and interact with each other. More importantly, the information can be recorded, saved, shared and exchanged during the interaction, which helps students review previous topics and focus on learning priorities at any time (Ainin et al., 2015). However, the existing findings lack discussion on the influence of social interaction and information exchange on the process and results of Facebook teaching (Chugh & Ruhi, 2018). Therefore, this study is based on TAM, retaining the three variables of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioral intentions. Given the specific context of Facebook teaching, the two core factors of social interaction and information exchange are introduced in this study.

2.2 The mediating role of social interaction

Network interaction includes two forms: human-computer interaction and interpersonal interaction (Luo et al., 2016). The human-computer interaction in this study refers to the interaction between students and the Facebook platform, including the convenience of obtaining information, the usefulness of content and the operability of the interface that students perceive. Network interaction is measured by two dimensions: perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (Davis, 1989). Interpersonal interaction focuses on communication between people beyond the limits of time and space, which simulates real social communication situation between people and refers to communication between peers, as well as students and teachers, along two dimensions: social interaction and exchanging of information.

In the context of specific research, the user’s objective perception of technology characteristics has an impact on cognition (Muhammad et al., 2018). The basis of interactivity is technology itself and the environment in which the technology is used. Therefore, people’s perceptions of technology determine the generation of interactivity (Schumann et al., 2001). People who use social media are more concerned about the media’s reliability in improving the speed and quality of sharing information with others and the opportunity to establish and maintain contact with others regardless of geographical restrictions (Kim et al., 2020). As a type of social media, the convenient and easy-to-use Facebook platform can promote interaction and communication between students (Jang, 2015; Doolan & Gilbert, 2017) pointed out that the integration of technology and social media in teaching can effectively support students’ participation in social interaction and enhance their learning enthusiasm. As a result, the perceptions of ease of use and usefulness are the foundational attributes that influence student interaction on Facebook. For these reasons, the following hypotheses on the direct effects are drawn from the existing literature.

H1.Perceived usefulness of Facebook affects social interaction positively and directly.

H2.Perceived ease of use of Facebook affects social interaction positively and directly.

According to symbolic interactionism, people obtain meaningful symbols through communication and interaction with each other, which are then internalized to form and develop themselves (Goffman, 2005). In the process of social interaction, people continuously receive and understand the relevant signals sent by the other party and then trust and accept them (Chang et al., 2017). Cyr, Head, and Ivanov (2009) asserted that the applications of website interactivity are important to attract and retain users and validated the relationship between user-perceived interactivity and behavioral intentions. Zhang, Liu, Yan, and Zhang (2017) asserted that perceived interaction quality of a virtual learning community (VLC) can directly affect perceived satisfaction and ultimately determine users’ continuance intention. Ifinedo (2017) suggested that Weblog can be used as a teaching tool in course design to encourage students to develop group interaction and collaboration, to ensure that students can continue to use Weblog for learning and communication in teaching. As a result, students’ attitudes towards using Facebook for learning will be positive when Facebook can effectively support smooth communication and effective interaction between teachers and students (Hershkovizt & Forkosh-Baruch, 2017).

H3.Social interaction affects Facebook usage intention positively and directly.

H4.Social interaction mediates the relationship between perceived usefulness and Facebook usage intention.

H5.Social interaction mediates the relationship between perceived ease of use and Facebook usage intention.

2.3 The moderating role of exchange of information

Exchanging information is the motivation for students to participate in Facebook. Specifically, students share their own experiences with others and at the same time derive needed information from other members’ experiences (Preece, 2001). According to social exchange theory, people’s decision making is based on a comparison of benefits and costs (Blau, 1968), so students will weigh the relationship between benefits and costs before using Facebook. When students think that the benefits of using Facebook to exchange information are extremely low or even zero, even if the use cost is low, students will not participate in Facebook teaching activities. In other words, when students think that they cannot find information that they are interested in from social media, or that the information provided by other users is unreliable, students will not have a high intention to use Facebook. Hersberger, Murray, and Rioux (2007) explored the usefulness of conceptualizing virtual communities, and information exchange had a positive effect on cognitive, behavioral and affective impact of online communities. Zheng, Zhao, and Stylianou (2013) revealed key quality concerns in their study of information exchange in a virtual community; they found that information and system quality directly affect individual benefits and user satisfaction, which ultimately determine user continuance intention. For these reasons, we propose that exchange of information moderates and strengthens the relationship between social interaction and Facebook usage intention.

H6.Exchange of information moderates the relationship between social interaction and Facebook usage intention.

3 Methodology

3.1 Sample and procedure

This study used a sample of Taiwan undergraduate hospitality students for several reasons. First, the Taiwanese government attaches great importance to developing the tourism and hospitality industry, which is listed as a new driving force for the future Taiwan economy. In recent years, as the scale of the hospitality market expands, the number of hospitality management courses in Taiwan universities increased year by year (Hsu, 2016), and the quality of hospitality management teaching has been questioned. Second, hospitality students are required to master technology and be professional with the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the hospitality industry. Digital education in hotel management has become an unavoidable reality because traditional classroom teaching can no longer adapt to the individuality of students and social development in the new era. Therefore, clarifying Taiwan undergraduate hospitality students’ degree of acceptance for teaching with new technology is urgent.

The quantitative method was used to measure undergraduate hospitality students’ perceptions about accepting Facebook teaching interventions. Several steps were used to collect data for this research project. First, a comprehensive literature about TAM, social interaction, exchange of information and technology teaching intervention was conducted to formulate the original survey. Second, the survey questionnaire was carefully selected from previous literature and translated directly from English to Chinese. Furthermore, some of the original sentences were revised to fit the special research purpose. To ensure the original meanings were maintained and prevent misleading the readers, two experts and scholars with abundant research experience in tourism and hospitality education research were invited to evaluate the translated questionnaire; they examined whether the original meanings were maintained and determined the appropriate Chinese items for measuring TAM, social interaction, information exchange and technology teaching intervention. Third, we collected data from senior students majoring in hospitality management at three universities in northern Taiwan. The participants expressed consistent experiences with Facebook teaching as well as their knowledge levels and backgrounds. Fourth, the hospitality facility planning and design course is a 3-credit elective course in the fourth year that lasts 18 weeks within one semester.

This study invited two professional educators with more than 10 years of experience in hospitality management teaching. They discussed the course’s progress and content together before the lecture. In addition, they assisted each other in further integrating Facebook into the restaurant design and development course. The period of data collection was the end of the course’s last week in January 2013, June 2016, June 2019 and January 2020. After 295 surveys were received, the invalid questionnaires were deducted and the final sample was composed of 289 usable responses (rate of 97.97%) for future analysis. The specific conditions of the survey sample are as follows in Table 1.

Table 1 Demographic information of participants (N = 289)
Full size table

3.2 The contribution of facebook intervention

We found that group member cooperation is needed for restaurant design and development to achieve organizational goals and meet customer needs. Chou et al. (2019) and Horng et al. (2013) have noted that restaurant design and development is a field that requires a combination of spatial planning concepts, design aesthetics, sustainable services, and problem-solving courses. Facebook allows the students in our sample to share resources easily, collaborate, update information, stream videos and enhance communication (Mazman & Usluel, 2010). Facebook also promotes networking, but it also enhances the learning experience by promoting the visibility of common problems that students face when taking various hospitality courses (Rambe, 2012). Through the combination of multimedia applications such as Facebook, collaborative learning, and problem solving, different teaching strategies can be used to assist hospitality students in improving their learning effectiveness (Chou et al., 2019). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to use Facebook to provide opportunities for members to work together, communicate and coordinate with each other both in and outside the classroom to complete the facility planning and design project of the final restaurant.

During the four teaching interventions conducted through Facebook, there were approximately 70–80 students in each class. Because there were so many students in each class, the teacher first established a course group on Facebook using their personal accounts and divided the students into groups of approximately 6–8 people. Students were required to join the course group and work together in groups to complete the semester report, to increase interactions and communication between students, teachers, and Facebook and to reduce the limitations of traditional teaching methods. The following explains the methods and content of these Facebook teaching interventions.

First, Facebook’s multimedia function: Facebook supports various forms of media, including text, images, videos, etc. In hospitality courses, teachers can use different forms of resources for teaching more flexibly (Davidovitch & Belichenko, 2018; Harris, 2012; Mabuan & Ebron Jr, 2017; Qassrawi & Al Karasneh, 2023). We know that restaurant design and development involve conveying not only information through text but also a large number of pictures and videos, such as architectural space forms, facility equipment usage and function introductions, and related web links with which students can interact. These pieces of information will also be recommended by Facebook’s algorithm machine learning mode, allowing students to immerse themselves in learning and to unknowingly absorb more relevant new knowledge (Qassrawi & Al Karasneh, 2023). Teachers also encourage sharing through course groups, and students can earn extra points by liking and sharing information, thus making information flow more actively among members.

Second, the Facebook social interaction feature: Facebook is a platform that focuses on social interaction, enabling teachers to interact more closely with students without the limitations of time and space. In Facebook groups, not only can teachers and students communicate conveniently and bidirectionally, but students can also communicate with each other and between groups without being restricted by time and space (Ansari & Khan, 2020; Davidovitch & Belichenko, 2018; Harris, 2012; Mabuan & Ebron Jr, 2017; Perez et al., 2023). In this study, students and teachers can use various communication methods, such as images, likes, text, and even real-time voice and video, to discuss and ask questions about restaurant design in different units, such as style, creativity, and aesthetics. Features such as instant messaging, group chat, and video calls allow teachers to contact students in real time and provide feedback, answer questions, and share resources, enhancing communication and interaction between teachers and students. Finally, Facebook has information storage and sharing features. Compared to other social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, Facebook messages are easier to retain. Teachers can store important information and teaching content on Facebook pages or groups, allowing students to access and review them anytime and share topic-related information with each other (Qassrawi & Al Karasneh, 2023).

In summary, the detailed explanation of learning activities on social media, such as Facebook, in this study shows that its features make it a versatile platform that can support various aspects of hospitality education, from communication and collaboration to personalized learning experiences for all learners. According to Eger (2015) and Qureshi et al. (2014), Facebook as a teaching platform may be more easily accepted by students than traditional schools or existing e-learning platforms because it is designed for easy interaction and knowledge sharing through sharing to enhance relationships. Future educators should be more open to accepting this informal teaching tool (Fewkes & McCabe, 2012).

3.3 Measures

The study assessed five main constructs that measured undergraduate hospitality students’ attitudes towards accepting Facebook teaching intervention. The study used a five-point Likert scale to measure each structure (1 = “strongly disagree”; 7 = “strongly agree”). First, based on studies by Kabilan, Ahmad, and Abidin (2010), Maranto and Barton (2010), Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, and Witty (2010), three items were used to measure social interaction. Second, information exchange was measured using a three-item measure from Selwyn (2009) and Junco (2012). Third, in accordance with the measures developed by Davis (1989), three items were used to measure perceived usefulness; four items were used to measure perceived ease of use, and three items were used to measure Facebook usage intention. Furthermore, the study also collected demographic information on students, including gender, age and average online time per day. Table 2 presents all measurement items, mean, standard deviation (S.D.), factor loading, t-value and Cronbach’s alpha. The results showed that the Cronbach’s alpha for each construct was greater than 0.724, showing high internal consistency. Moreover, the value of each factor loading was above 0.673, which confirmed construct validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Table 2 Descriptive statistics and confirmatory factor analysis (N = 289) a
Full size table

3.4 Polymerization validity analysis

Given that the structure consists of multiple dependent and independent variables, we evaluated the items through a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the proposed model’s latent constructs. According to the basic requirements of structural equation modeling (SEM), the study used AMOS 21.0 to measure the model with several indexes of the overall model fit. The standardized coefficient loading in our proposed model presented high values for their respective factors. The theorized proposed five-factor model latent factors displayed a good fit (χ2 = 216.551, RMR = 0.032, RMSEA = 0.067, GFI = 0.879, AGFI = 0.895, NFI = 0.879, RFI = 0.845, IFI = 0.928, TLI = 0.906, CFI = 0.927, χ2/df = 2.304, PGFI = 0.631, PNFI = 0.688, PCFI = 0.726) (Doll et al., 1994). Additionally, the study provided average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) to measure the construct validity. The values of the composite reliabilities in this study were from 0.769 to 0.867, which indicates that all indicators are representative of the latent constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Furthermore, the average variance extracted values in this study ranged from 0.521 to 0.687, indicating that the average explanatory power of the constructs used in this study was adequate. Then, the study analyzed the square root of the AVE of each construct. The results showed that the correlation coefficient between the facet and other facets are less than the square root of the AVE, which supported discriminant validity (Chen et al., 2019). The confirmatory factor analysis and discriminant validity were summarized in Table 3.

Table 3 Means, standard deviations (S.D.), combined reliability (CR), average variance extraction (AVE), correlations and discriminant validity
Full size table

4 Results

4.1 Analyses of common method variance (CMV)

Because the data used in this study were collected via self-reports, common method variance should be considered when conducting advanced analysis (Liu, 2018). Therefore, several steps were taken to detect CMV. First, the chi-square difference test suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981) was used. The results show that 24.031% of the variance in the principal component is explained, which is below the suggested value of 40%. Second, we also observed that there may be high correlations among the variables; thus, the values of the variance inflation factor (VIF) were calculated to detect collinearity (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The results show that the VIF values were below 1.30, indicating that multicollinearity was not a serious problem in this study (O’Brien, 2007). This examination process thus confirmed that CMV was not a major problem in this study.

4.2 Hypothetical test

According to previous studies, when examining multiple dependent and independent variables, structural equation modeling (SEM) is the most suitable method for examining mediating and moderating effects (Tho, 2018). The advantages of SEM include the ability to conduct multiple relationship and path analyses simultaneously (Chou et al., 2019), the ability to estimate residuals (Liu, 2018), and better explanations of the complex tourism and hospitality industrial environment (Huang, 2020). Therefore, this study used AMOS 21.0 software to employ the Monte Carlo approach with 2,000 resamples and a 95% confidence interval estimation to conduct a SEM analysis to examine the mediating and moderating effects. The overall fit statistics (χ2 = 153.105, χ2/DF = 2.469, CFI = 0.933, IFI = 0.934, AGFI = 0.888, GFI = 0.924, RMSEA = 0.071) in Fig. 2 indicate a suitable level of fit for advanced analysis.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Research results for proposed hypothesis

Note. χ2=153.105, χ2/DF=2.469, CFI=0.933, IFI=0.934, AGFI=0.888, GFI=0.924, RMSEA=0.071

Full size image

Further explanation of their relationship is provided in Table 4. Perceived usefulness was positively and significantly correlated with social interaction (β = 0.267; p < .001); thus, Hypothesis 1 was supported. Additionally, perceived ease of use was confirmed to have significant and positive influences on social interaction (β = 0.143; p < .05), suggesting that Hypothesis 2 could be maintained. Furthermore, social interaction was confirmed to have a positive influence on usage intention (β = 0.206; p < .01); consequently, Hypothesis 3 was supported. Additionally, Hypothesis 4 and Hypothesis 5 proposed the mediating role of social interaction in this context. The findings showed that social interaction not only mediates the relationship between perceived usefulness and usage intention (β = 0.053; p < .01) but also plays an intermediate role in linking the relationship between perceived ease of use and usage intention (β = 0.029; p < .05). These results supported Hypothesis 4 and Hypothesis 5. Finally, the moderating role of social interaction was tested. Figure 3 demonstrates that social interaction strengthens the positive relationship between the exchange of information and usage intentions (β = 0.141; p < .001), thus supporting Hypothesis 6.

Table 4 Mediation effect test
Full size table
Table 5 Moderating effect test
Full size table
Fig. 3
figure 3

Moderating effects of social interaction on the relationship between exchange of information and usage intention

Full size image

4.3 Robustness checks

This study was conducted in accordance with similar procedures to examine the robustness of proposed model results. We tested an alternative model shown in Table 6. First, we tested the alternative hypothesized Model 2, which removed the path of “perceived usefulness” to “social interaction” and added the path of “perceived usefulness” to “usage intention”. The model fit the data well, but the overall results were poor for the proposed model (χ² = 164.500, χ²/df = 2.653, CFI = 0.924, IFI = 0.925, AGFI = 0.881, GFI = 0.919, RMSEA = 0.076). Second, we tested the alternative hypothesized Model 3 based on the alternative hypothesis Model 2. Model 3 removed the path of “perceived ease of use” to “social interaction” and added the path of “perceived ease of use” to “usage intention”. The robustness models had poorer results than the previous model (χ² = 161.875, χ²/df = 2.611, CFI = 0.926, IFI = 0.927, AGFI = 0.881, GFI = 0.919, RMSEA = 0.075). The results confirmed the original model presents the best model fit with this alternative model.

Table 6 Alternative model test
Full size table

5 Conclusion and discussion

The technology acceptance model is further expanded in this study, which investigates the mediating and moderating effects of social interaction and information exchange in the teaching process from the perspective of human-computer interaction and interpersonal interaction. Moreover, it also empirically tests the internal mechanism of Taiwan undergraduate hospitality students’ acceptance of Facebook teaching intervention. The main research conclusions are as follows:

First, the study confirms that human-computer interaction can promote social interaction. Specifically, Facebook’s perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have a positive influence on students’ social interaction. With the increasing frequency of using Facebook in the teaching environment as well as Facebook’s optimization of its own functions, students’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use for using Facebook are improved (Awidi et al., 2019). The technological barriers affecting communication and interaction between students and between students and teachers have been gradually eliminated in the process of Facebook teaching interventions. As a popular social media platform, Facebook’s distinctive advantages in collaboration, interaction and communication are fully highlighted, thus providing beneficial support and enhancement for students’ social interactions in classroom learning (Inphoo & Nomnian, 2019). This shows that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use under human-computer interaction are important prerequisites for students’ social interaction in teaching. This conclusion supports the research viewpoints of Doolan and Gilbert (2017).

Second, this study further confirmed that social interaction under interpersonal interaction has a positive impact on Facebook usage intention, and students with fairly strong social interactions in teaching are more willing to accept and use Facebook. The reason is that social interaction through Facebook is a complement to real life relationships, which makes people feel more connected to each other. As an indirect method of communication, Facebook promotes deep emotional and spiritual communication between students. In this way, the relationships between students can be greatly enhanced, and the need for interpersonal communication can be satisfied as well. Consequently, their behavioral motivation and practical behavior to continue using Facebook will be stimulated (Akcaoglu & Lee, 2016). Additionally, the study proves that social interaction is an important mediation that influences students’ usage of Facebook. In the process of Facebook teaching intervention, the functions of Facebook first meet students’ basic needs for operation interface and knowledge acquisition, then further meet students’ spiritual needs for interpersonal communication through social interaction, and finally affect their behavioral intention of using Facebook.

Finally, the study found that the exchange of information under interpersonal interaction is a key factor in moderating the relationship between social interaction and Facebook usage intention. Students transfer, share and exchange information through Facebook to obtain the information they need and obtain a deeper understanding of the information (Razali et al., 2017). The quality of information exchange is a core expression image and important content of two-way communication. The speed of information diffusion is accelerated by taking advantage of Facebook, which helps students obtain data and materials related to learning quickly and effectively, and then the importance of course learning through Facebook is given full play (Shaw, 2017). Furthermore, students learn information about classmates and teachers by Facebook as well as the information exchange and interaction generated by these contents mentioned above. The interaction can help students enhance their understanding of classmates and teachers and establish emotional connections (Thai et al., 2019). Thus, students are more willing to continue using Facebook when their perceived benefits are higher than perceived costs.

5.1 Theoretical contribution

Focused on the problem of hospitality education, this study concentrates on the attitudes and behaviors of undergraduate hospitality students towards using Facebook as a teaching intervention. The conclusions provide unique theoretical contributions to the study of hospitality education. First, by introducing social interaction as the indirect driving factor of technology acceptance behavior for the first time, the undergraduate hospitality students’ acceptance of Facebook is discussed in this study. The importance of social interaction in the process of Facebook teaching is emphasized. Most existing literature related to the technology acceptance model emphasizes the development of external variables (Thai et al., 2019). This study breaks through the limitations of thinking and focuses on discussing the effect of social interaction, which plays an important mediating role in the process of students’ acceptance of Facebook teaching intervention. This reflects the theoretical supplement and extension of the technology acceptance model and provides some innovation in terms of theoretical perspective.

Second, this study highlights that Facebook usage intention among undergraduate hospitality students is the result of both interpersonal interaction and human-computer interaction. The quality of human-computer interaction affects Facebook usage intention (Moorthy et al., 2019). Furthermore, as a social media platform Facebook has the greatest advantage in promoting communication, cooperation and information sharing among students (Niu, 2019). Many previous studies focused on exploring the impact of different perceptions with technological characteristics on students’ Facebook usage intentions, and the effect of interpersonal interaction was less frequently included in the research scope of technology teaching intervention (Moorthy et al., 2019). This study creatively put forward both human-computer interaction and interpersonal interaction as two important factors in the process of Facebook teaching. The characteristic advantage of technology is the basic premise for students to accept technology, whereas interpersonal interaction can drive the flow of emotional energy and the exchange of symbolic capital. Creating a good technology experience is the stimulating factor for students to accept technology. The conclusions enrich the literature on technology teaching interventions and emphasize that the effects of interaction between students and teachers should be considered when examining technology education.

Third, this study investigated the important regulating mechanism of information exchange between social interaction and Facebook usage intention. Whether the influence relation between social interaction and information exchange is strong or weak had not been discussed in previous studies (Madge et al., 2009). This study emphasizes that the exchange of information can interfere with the relationship between social interaction and Facebook usage intention. The findings supplement knowledge on interpersonal interaction in the field of technology teaching intervention.

5.2 Educational implications

First, hospitality schools should take full advantage of Facebook’s features in teaching and should pay attention to the usefulness and ease of use of technology. Teachers are encouraged to give students certain technical guidance before formal classes, as providing appropriate help and guidance should reduce students’ learning difficulties and lead students to complete course learning more effectively (Chiou et al., 2020). Tedious steps should be reduced and operational difficulties should be eliminated during the learning process. At the same time, learning content for undergraduate hospitality students should be relevant to their professional knowledge, and it should also be truly useful to students. Moreover, the teacher needs to adjust the curriculum design according to Facebook’s features, perfect the teaching content system of Facebook, and fully consider the actual demand and realistic problems of undergraduate hospitality students in learning in order to enable learners to make reasonable choices according to their own situations and the course’s difficulty level. Making it convenient for learners to use and implementing the ease of use and usefulness of Facebook learning can include adding practical and humanized additional functions (such as charts, sounds, videos, and games) in order to improve students’ willingness to use Facebook (Valova & Marinov, 2019).

Second, teachers should make teaching innovative by making use of technology, designing flexible and interesting teaching activities, and thus creating a three-dimensional and interactive learning environment (Huang, 2020). Students are consciously encouraged to actively participate in Facebook classroom learning, and they are also encouraged to form a learning community in the process of individual knowledge construction through sharing, negotiation, reflection and emotional communication as well as knowledge construction via peer collaboration (Davidovitch & Belichenko, 2018). In addition, enhancing social interaction by building learning communities and discussion groups on Facebook, providing online teacher support services with question and answer sessions at fixed times, and sharing contact information will form a multidirectional interaction mechanism between learners and learners and between learners and teachers. In this way, students’ willingness to accept Facebook learning will be promoted (Jong et al., 2014).

Third, in addition to high expertise in teaching, undergraduate hospitality teachers should also learn to skillfully use Facebook to carry out diversified teaching and to strengthen their information processing abilities (Kwangsawad, 2016). The big data and artificial intelligence of Facebook can be used to analyze the differences in learners’ learning preferences, in order to provide intelligent teaching services to meet the needs of students (Huang et al., 2020). For example, big data results can be used to find problems, improve teaching design to guide students’ learning in time, and motivate students’ Facebook usage intention (Wu et al., 2020).

5.3 Limitations and future research suggestion

Although this study has made contributions to the field of Facebook teaching intervention, there are still some limitations that should be addressed in future studies. First, the research samples were selected from senior undergraduate hospitality students at three universities in Taiwan. Given the great differences in educational systems and patterns in different countries, including differences in learning environments, cultural concepts, and development of education and technology (Zhang et al., 2020), samples should be collected from other countries or regions to further explore the universality of these research conclusions. Moreover, the differences between students in different learning environments and cultural backgrounds in their acceptance of Facebook teaching intervention should be discussed through comparative study. Second, individual characteristics have an impact on attitudes and behaviors towards technology acceptance (Ndubisi, 2005). Consequently, further research can explore the differences in Facebook usage intention among students with different characteristics through comparative studies by introducing the personal characteristics of undergraduate hospitality students.