The International Journal of Technology, Innovation, and Education

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Volume 4, 2026 – Issue 3

When Use is Not Acceptance: A Meta-Ethnography of Emergency Online Learning in Higher Education

Yassine Hadj Sadek 1*, and Adil Boulahoual 2

LIREIMO, ENCG Casablanca, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco

* Corresponding author: yassine.hadjsadek@edu.encgcasa.ma

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23785891

Abstract

When participation in a technology is institutionally required, observed use loses much of its discriminating value, because endorsement, compliance, reluctance and pragmatic accommodation leave the same behavioral trace, and what acceptance means under such conditions is insufficiently specified. This article examines that problem through an extreme case: the 2020 emergency transition to online higher education, in which participation was institutionally constrained, although individual alternatives were not systematically documented. Seven qualitative and mixed-methods studies of that period, from six countries, were purposively selected and synthesized using Noblit and Hare’s meta-ethnography. Reciprocal translation produced six third-order constructs and suggests a six-element account of constrained acceptance: crisis constraint, limited alternatives, pragmatic compliance, relational cost, negotiated legitimacy and routinization. The elements form a line of argument rather than a temporal sequence, and the last is advanced as an interpretive proposal rather than a finding. Participants’ own accounts distinguish adequacy from compliance: students report completing requirements while judging that they were not learning, and academic staff question whether online tools were sufficient for the curriculum or merely required. The account suggests what usage records alone may not capture: the relational costs of participation and judgments about whether the arrangement is educationally sound. The corpus is small, purposively assembled and student-dominant, which bounds the account.

Keywords: technology acceptance, constrained adoption, meta-ethnography, higher education, online learning, institutional legitimacy 

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Published

2026/10/31

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Research Papers

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Hadj Sadek, Y., & Boulahoual, A. (2026). When use is not acceptance: A meta-ethnography of emergency online learning in higher education. The International Journal of Technology, Innovation, and Education, 4(3), 449–486. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23785891

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Hadj Sadek, Yassine, and Adil Boulahoual. 2026. “When Use Is Not Acceptance: A Meta-Ethnography of Emergency Online Learning in Higher Education.” The International Journal of Technology, Innovation, and Education 4 (3): 449–86. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23785891.

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Hadj Sadek, Yassine, and Adil Boulahoual. “When Use Is Not Acceptance: A Meta-Ethnography of Emergency Online Learning in Higher Education.” The International Journal of Technology, Innovation, and Education, vol. 4, no. 3, Oct. 2026, pp. 449–86, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23785891.

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Y. Hadj Sadek and A. Boulahoual, “When use is not acceptance: A meta-ethnography of emergency online learning in higher education,” The International Journal of Technology, Innovation, and Education, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 449–486, Oct. 2026, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.23785891.

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Hadj Sadek, Y. and Boulahoual, A. (2026) “When use is not acceptance: A meta-ethnography of emergency online learning in higher education,” The International Journal of Technology, Innovation, and Education, 4(3), pp. 449–486. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23785891.

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Hadj Sadek Y, Boulahoual A. When use is not acceptance: A meta-ethnography of emergency online learning in higher education. The International Journal of Technology, Innovation, and Education [Internet]. 2026 Oct 31;4(3):449–86. Available from: https://ijtie.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/N40397.pdf

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Hadj Sadek, Y., & Boulahoual, A. (2026). When use is not acceptance: A meta-ethnography of emergency online learning in higher education. The International Journal of Technology, Innovation, and Education, 4(3), 449–486. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23785891

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About the authors
  1. Yassine Hadj Sadek is a doctoral researcher at ENCG Casablanca, Hassan II University of Casablanca, and a member of LIREIMO. His research interests include educational technology, online and distance learning, technology acceptance, and digital transformation in higher education.
    yassine.hadjsadek@edu.encgcasa.ma
    ↩︎
  2. Adil Boulahoual is a professor at ENCG Casablanca, Hassan II University of Casablanca, and a member of LIREIMO. He supervises doctoral research and contributes to research activities within the institution.
    a.boulahoual@encgcasa.ma
    ↩︎
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