Factors of acceptance of digital tools: the example of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform in the context of collaborative projects

In face of the omnipresence of digital technology in all aspects of life, education and training players are encouraged to adapt to digital tools. This should enable learners to grasp and take advantage of the potential it offers, while developing the various dimensions of digital skills. However, the introduction of digital tools in education and training environments still raises many challenges, especially because any new technology requires from all actors, teachers and learners in particular, a change in their habits and postures. This action research takes as a theoretical analysis framework the model of instrumental acceptance applied to information and communication technologies developed by Caron and Heutte (2017). It focuses on the factors of acceptance and use of a digital tool in general, in particular the 3DExperience platform, by learners involved in applied collaborative projects. It is based on several experiments carried out with students from ISAE-Supméca, a French engineering school, and other students from partner institutions as part of the EXAPP₃D educational research project. With a methodology that focuses on interpretative phenomenological analysis (Restivo et. al. , 2018), it provides scientific support for the sometimes complex challenges of integrating new tools in engineering schools.