Connotation, Structure Dimension and Scale Development of Online Course Stickiness—From the Perspective of Multimodality

The article clarifies the connotation and structural dimensions of online course stickiness. Using multimodal theory as a theoretical foundation, it explores a measurement framework for online course stickiness. Based on literature review and interviews, an initial scale comprising 27 items was developed. Items were screened through item analysis, followed by purification of the scale via exploratory factor analysis (<i>n</i> = 320) and confirmatory factor analysis (<i>n</i> = 320). The exploratory factor analysis yielded 23 items, which were grouped into four factors: technology stickiness, content stickiness, sociability stickiness, and faculty stickiness. The factor loadings ranged from 0.613 to 0.780, with a cumulative variance contribution rate of 61.086%. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the four-factor model fit the data well (χ²/df = 2.356, RMSEA = 0.065, CFI = 0.914, TLI = 0.902). The results demonstrate that the scale has good reliability and validity, and can be used in related research fields in the future.