Muhammad Roy Aziz Haryana, Hendri Hermawan, Rudi Prasetya Timur, Rochmat Susanto
—The Merdeka Belajar–Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program has accelerated digital transformation in Indonesian education, shifting learning from teacher-centered to student-centered approaches supported by emerging technologies. This study investigates how individual characteristics (personal innovativeness and playfulness) and environmental characteristics (compatibility and familiarity), together with media richness, influence cognitive absorption in vocational high school students using e-learning systems. It also examines how cognitive absorption affects belief construction, reflected in perceived usefulness and ease of use of the system. Data from 222 students were analyzed using independent sample t-tests and Partial Least Squares (PLS). Results show that media richness and environmental characteristics enhance cognitive absorption, while familiarity has no significant effect in low-media environments. Higher cognitive absorption strengthens students’ beliefs in the e-learning system. These findings suggest that integrating media-rich processes can improve learning engagement and support belief formation in e-learning adoption. © 2026 by the authors.
Department of Business and Finance, Faculty of Vocational, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; MTs Taruna Al Qur’an, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
