Computers in Human Behavior 59 (2016) 1e8

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Computers in Human Behavior

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Full length article

The impact of electronic environmental knowledge on the

environmental behaviors of people
Batool Zareie, Nima Jafari Navimipour*
Young Researchers and Elite Club, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Nowadays, we examined the connection between individuals' relationships with the natural environ-
Received 2 June 2015 ment, their environmental behaviors, and their environmental knowledge with a focus on environmental
Received in revised form attitudes, environmental awareness, environmental values, public information, environmental skills, and
19 January 2016
environmental responsibility is very interesting. Environmental knowledge involves human discourse
Accepted 21 January 2016
Available online 2 February 2016
about interrelationships with the environment. The impact of people to perceive and interpret the
relative health of environmental systems and to take appropriate action to maintain, restore, or improve
the health of those systems is very important. Therefore, environmental teaching and learning is very
Keywords:
E-Learning
necessary and can help to improve the environment behaviors of the people. The purpose of this paper is
Environmental to investigate the impact of e-learning system the environmental of the behavior. Data were collected
Knowledge from 330 students of Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University. After performing satisfactory reliability and
Behaviors validity checks, the structural model was tested with the use of smart PLS 2.0. Results indicate that
electronic environmental knowledge learning has a direct effect on person's environmental behaviors.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction dispersed learner community (Sandanayake & Madurapperuma,

Nowadays, technology is perceived as an effective and indis-
pensable element of life and has become the most distinctive
characteristics of modern culture (Ordo
n
~ ez de Pablos, 2014). In
addition, web services and the Internet as an information hub
facilitate knowledge sharing (Charband & Jafari Navimipour, 2016)
and data transferring (Jafari Navimipour, Rahmani, Navin, &
Hosseinzadeh, 2015; Navimipour, 2015; Souri & Jafari
Navimipour, 2014). So, the use of it in the current era is consid-
ered as a solution for multinational organizations or educational
institutions' for their expense and quality issues (Jafari Navimipour
& Zareie, 2015). Also, the use these technologies and social
networking has grown rapidly, and they are increasingly being
incorporated into the teaching of higher education (Button,
Harrington, & Belan, 2014). E-learning as a common use of
internet and social networks utilizes electronic communication for
learning and teaching from a distance (Oztekin, Delen, Turkyilmaz,
& Zaim, 2013). E-learning as a support tool for educators is a me-
dium of delivery of anytime, and anywhere of content to a
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jafari@iaut.ac.ir (N. Jafari Navimipour).
2013). It is shifting from being instructor-centric to learner-
centric so that personalization (learning according to individual's
interest, knowledge base, and style), and learning flexibility (time
and location) are enhanced (Xu, Huang, Wang, & Heales, 2014). In
general, distance education or e-learning offer delivering education
and teaching to students who are not physically present in tradi-
tional setting such as classroom, studio, meeting hall or conference
hall (Ordo
n~ ez de Pablos, 2014) and in universities, it is used as a
specific method to convey a content of a course or a program to the
on-line students (Dharmawansa, Nakahira, & Fukumura, 2013). The
field of environmental learning has grown over the past years and
more recently is assuming the identifiers of an emerging profession
(Heimlich, 2010) where serves a very similar function.
As another hand, Unesco has named the decade 2005e2014 as
the decade for the “education for the sustainable development”
(Pitoska & Lazarides, 2013). Environmental knowledge involves
human discourse about interrelationships with the environment
and is the degree of people capacity to perceive and interpret the
relative health of environmental systems (Roth, 1992). Environ-
mental education is considered a continuous and permanent pro-
cess which is a dimension of integral education of all citizens,
oriented so that the process of knowledge acquisition, development
of habits, skills and attitudes and values formation by making

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.01.025
0747-5632/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 B. Zareie, N. Jafari Navimipour / Computers in Human Behavior 59 (2016) 1e8
sustainable development (Rodrigues, 2014). Teaching and learning
on environmental education is very necessary and is needed to
teach students to act for the environment (Thathong &
Leopenwong, 2014). Environmental knowledge does not only
refer to information on environmental issues also the ability to
synthesize holistically by the personal learning process. This
learning process is embedded by socioeconomic, political, cultural,
historical and ecological factors (Ramdas & Mohamed, 2014).
Environmental knowledge is a measure of a person's knowledge
about the interactions of humans and their environments, envi-
ronmental issues, and the various connections in ecological sys-
tems (Burchett, 2015). Issues of environmental instability and
worldwide environmental degradation have resulted in a call for
greater emphasis on environmental education in order to create
and maintain optimal and sustainable relationships between the
public and the environment (Blanchet-Cohen & Reilly, 2013). Hu-
mankind is facing a number of global environmental challenges,
such as climate change, resource depletion, or biodiversity loss. To
counter these challenges, both international and interdisciplinary
efforts have to be made. Undertakings such as trying to understand
the key drivers and processes behind behavior causing these
challenges, predicting their development over time and eventually
changing the system enough to mitigate negative outcomes are
€ ckner, 2013).
essential (Klo
Recent studies have demonstrated that there are major short-
comings in the public's understanding and awareness of environ-
mental issues (Burchett, 2015). Therefore, since environmental
education can have a significant influence on public's under-
standing and people behavior, the purpose of this paper is to
investigate the impact of e-learning on environmental behavior of
the people. Therefore, the contributions of this paper are as follows:

Conserving of environmental resources by means of learning;

Providing a model for a more comprehensive understanding of
the factors that influence the people environmental behavior;

Exploring future challenges for environmental resources;

Providing suggestions for improving the environmental
behavior of individuals.
Rest of this paper is organized as follows. In the next section, we
review the related literature. In section 3, we discuss the research
methodology by describing the data collection, present the
research model, and define the measurement of variables. In Sec-
tion 4, the results are analyzed. Finally, in section 5, the conclusions,
limitations, and suggestions for future research are provided.
2. Related works
In a knowledge and information society, e-learning has built on
the extensive use of advanced information and communication
technologies to deliver learning and instruction (Jafari Navimipour
& Zareie, 2015). Knowledge-based and learning systems deal with a
very difficult task in all the activities regarding knowledge man-
agement, due to knowledge representation is not a trivial task
(Lytras & de Pablos, 2011). Also, learning and education have always
been seen as a key factor for improving the quality of life in any
social and can build the future (Rodríguez-Barreiro, Ferna
ndez-
Manzanal et al. 2013). Environmental behavioral scientists are
increasingly seeking to apply principles of behavior analysis to
manage the natural areas to decrease behaviors that are detri-
mental to the natural environment and promote pro-
environmental ones (Ramkissoon, Graham Smith, & Weiler,
2013). The goals of environmental education are more explicitly
stated in the generally accepted definition offered by the Charter
(1976): where are the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations,
and commitment to work individually and collectively toward so-
lutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones
(Heimlich, 2010). Also, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) is used
to explain in overall the relationship between knowledge, attitude,
and behavioral intentions and used to form a framework that re-
lates environmental knowledge and willingness to pay (Ramdas &
Mohamed, 2014). Individuals' environmental behaviors reflect
their environmental knowledge. Hence, developing environmental
knowledge is equivalent to developing responsible environmental
behavior, and individuals' behaviors reflect the level of their envi-
ronmental knowledge. The rest of this section provides a brief
overview of the most important and state of the art research in the
field of knowledge and environmental behavior.
Best and Kneip (2011) have tested the competing hypotheses in
the context of post-consumer waste recycled. They have collected
data from a natural experiment on recycling participation in Co-
logne/Germany. The obtained results showed that environmental
attitudes directly increase the probability of recycling participation.
Also, the effect of environmental concern is stronger when
behavioral cost is low (Best & Kneip, 2011).
Botelho (2012) has evaluated the impact of training on
employee behavior. This study uses the collected data by a large
survey of over 700 small private healthcare in Portugal. He found
that compliance with the law is far from ideal and that provision of
education and training is the strongest policy factor influencing the
degree of compliance (Botelho, 2012).

ka, Szere
Zso
nyi, Sze

chy, and Kocsis (2013) have explored the
relationship between environmental education and environmental
knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Basic statistical analyzes (fre-
quencies and crosstabs), multidimensional scaling (MDS), and
cluster analysis were performed on the data. The results showed
that the focus of the environmental education appears to be
important in shaping attitudes about sustainable consumption and
increasing the awareness has a positive effect on consumption and
environmental behavior (Zso
ka et al., 2013).
Also, the impact of environmental knowledge on pro-
environmental behavior is investigated by Vicente-Molina,
Fern
andez-Sa
inz, and Izagirre-Olaizola (2013). Data have been
collected using a structured questionnaire. The samples for this
study were university students from countries with different levels
of economic development (United States of America, Spain, Mexico,
and Brazil). The obtained results showed that pro-environmental
behavior is influenced by motivation, knowledge, attitudes, and
perceptions effectiveness (Vicente-Molina et al., 2013).
Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, and Cheng (2014) have focused on local
residents' self-reported pro-environmental behaviors. They inves-
tigated whether residents' awareness of disaster's consequences,
values and place attachment affects their pro-environmental be-
haviors based on value belief- norm and place attachment theories.
They were using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equa-
tion modeling to verify the fitness of the data collected for the
model. This research concludes that residents' awareness of di-
saster's consequences, values and place attachment impact their
pro-environmental behaviors positively. The resulted showed that
altruistic values are a more powerful predictor of pro-
environmental behaviors compared with egoistic values and
place attachment has a stronger impact on pro-environmental
behaviors than the awareness of disaster's consequences and
values (Zhang et al., 2014).
As another research in this scope, Kil, Holland, and Stein (2014)
have examined the relationship between environmental attitudes,
outdoor recreation motivations, and environmentally responsible
behaviors. Data were collected using interviews and question-
naires. To determine the psychometric properties of the constructs
and explore the proposed models, they have utilized SPSS18 and
 B. Zareie, N. Jafari Navimipour / Computers in Human Behavior 59 (2016) 1e8
AMOS 18. Structural model results indicated that the significant
relationships between attitudes, motivations, and behaviors. Also,
the resulted showed that the environmental attitudes influenced
on the motivations and environmental behaviors, and motivations
were significantly related to environmental behaviors (Kil et al.,
2014).
Also, Saribas, Teksoz, and Ertepinar (2014) have examined the
level of preservice elementary teachers' knowledge and self-
efficacy beliefs. They have investigated the relationship between
the environmental knowledge and self-efficacy beliefs. A Pearson
coefficient of correlation was used to analyze the data. The results
of the study indicated that the participants did not have sufficient
environmental knowledge or self-efficacy beliefs related to envi-
ronmental education, although their environmental attitude,
concern and perception of environmental issues were relatively
high (Saribas et al., 2014).
Fraj, Matute, and Melero (2015) have examined the links be-
tween proactive environmental strategies, organizational capabil-
ities, and competitiveness. The model is presented and tested using
a sample of 232 Spanish hotels. They have analyzed the data using
the partial least squares (PLS). According to the study's findings, in
the hospitality industry, the implementation of proactive envi-
ronmental strategies should be endorsed by mechanisms that are
capable of creating an effective intelligence that facilitates decision-
making in turbulent markets. The findings showed that a proactive
environmental strategy and innovation can help organizational
competitiveness. However, a learning orientation does not directly
predict organizational competitiveness (Fraj et al., 2015).
Finally, Han (2015) has provided a comprehensive understand-
ing of the formation of travelers' pro-environmental intentions in a
green lodging context by merging value-belief-norm theory. They
have used SPSS 20 and AMOS 20 software to analyze the collected
data. The results of the structural analysis indicated that the unified
model includes a satisfactory level of predictive power for pro-
environmental intention, which was superior to existing theories.
Findings also supported the hypothesized relationships among
study variables, identified the prominent role of awareness of
consequences and normative process in generating an intention,
and verified the mediating impact of study variables. The main
advantage of this theoretical model is its comprehensiveness and
sufficiency (Han, 2015).
Briefly, Table 1 summarizes and compares the mentioned
related works in the field of environmental knowledge.
3. Material and methods
This section explores the relationship between electronic envi-
ronmental knowledge learning and environmental behaviors using
some variables. The important variables that have an impact on
environmental behavior through of knowledge environmental ed-
ucation are environmental awareness, environmental attitudes,
environmental values, knowledge of environmental, environ-
mental skills, and environmentally responsible behaviors. The rest
of this section investigates and discusses these variables.
3.1. Measurement instruments
A representative sample randomly selected from the Under-
graduate and Master's students of Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad
University.1 Participants were asked to complete an anonymous
self-reporting questionnaire to gauge their responses. All the
measurement used the five-point Likert-type scales ranging from
1
www.iaut.ac.ir.
3
1 ¼ absolute agree, to 5 ¼ absolute disagree. To analyze the
collected data, SPSS 22andSMART- PLS 2.0 software package were
used.
3.2. The variables identification
The environmental knowledge variables that we investigated in
this study are environmental attitudes, environmental awareness,
environmental values, public information, environmental skills,
and environmental responsibility. The rest of this section provides a
brief description of the identified variables.
3.2.1. Environmental attitudes
In the 1960s, sociologists and environmentally minded scholars
began to study environmental attitudes (Yu, 2014). Environmental
attitudes consist of complex perceptions formed by the values and
beliefs of an individual that brings out the verbal commitment,
actual commitment, motivation, and intention to act in partici-
pating actively towards environmental protection and improve-
ment (Harun, Lim, & Othman, 2011) and when a person's attitudes
are rooted in morality, they become intertwined with intuition and
emotion (Feinberg & Willer, 2013). Environmental attitudes consist
of complex perceptions formed by the values and beliefs of an in-
dividual, which brings out the verbal commitment, actual
commitment, motivation and intention to act in participating
actively towards environmental protection and improvement.
Environmental attitudes derive from three dimensions which
consist of environmental worldview, concern, and commitment
and it is a combination of personal experiences, cultural norms, and
values which derive as an opinion towards on giving environmental
issue (Ramdas & Mohamed, 2014).
3.2.2. Environmental awareness
The environmental awareness component includes factual
knowledge about the environment and recognition of environ-
mental problems (Hurst, Dittmar, Bond, & Kasser, 2013). Awareness
is the ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, ob-
jects, thoughts, emotions, or sensory patterns. In this level of con-
sciousness, an observer can confirm sense data without necessarily
implying understanding. More broadly, it is the quality or state of
being aware of something.
3.2.3. Environmental values
The concept of values is not new to the field of environmental
psychology (Barr, 2007). Values not only represent a society's most
central cultural features, but also are fundamental factors influ-
encing individuals' attitudes, norms, worldviews, beliefs, and be-
haviors (Zhang et al., 2014). Materialistic values are important to
consider in relation to environmental attitudes and behavior for
two reasons: first, there is considerable theoretical and empirical
support that this particular value may be negatively related to
environmental outcomes, and second, it is an individual difference
which may be more readily influenced than personality variables
(Hurst et al., 2013).
3.2.4. Information of environmental issues
In fact, environmental knowledge and attitude are components
of a wider concept known as environmental knowledge (Ramdas &
Mohamed, 2014). Knowledge and information of environmental
understanding issues resulting from human interaction with the
environment (Karimzadegan & Meiboudia, 2012). Also, information
can be defined as one's ability to identify a number of symbols,
concepts and behavior patterns related to environmental protec-
tion (Vicente-Molina et al., 2013).
4 B. Zareie, N. Jafari Navimipour / Computers in Human Behavior 59 (2016) 1e8

Table 1
Summarization and comparison of related works in the field of environmental knowledge.

Article name Year of Method Advantages Limitation

publication

The impact of attitudes and behavioral costs on 2011 Testing competitive hypotheses.
Presenting a scheme to
It is difficult to change
environmental behavior: A natural experiment on increase environmentally attitudes
household waste recycling responsible behavior.
The impact of education and training on compliance 2012 Controlling of sanitary waste
providing facilities on staff
Lacking appropriate
behavior and waste generation in European private through staff training training management practices
healthcare facilities
Greening due to environmental education? 2013 Exploring the relationship between
Providing a coherent
The results are not
Environmental knowledge, attitudes, consumer environmental education and framework for the most ensured by
behavior and everyday pro-environmental activities knowledge, attitudes and behaviors important environmental representativeness
of Hungarian high school and university students issues for students
Environmental knowledge and other variables affecting 2013 Analyzing the influence of
Highlighting the importance of
Participating limitations
pro-environmental behavior: comparison of environmental knowledge on pro- education, knowledge and
It is a cross-sectional
university students from emerging and advanced environmental behavior motivation in pro- study
countries environmental behavior
Predicting residents' pro-environmental behaviors at 2014 Presenting the conceptual model
Improving the knowledge of
Several natural disaster
tourist sites: The role of awareness of disaster's pro-environmental behaviors
Focusing on a specific
consequences, values, and place attachment area
Structural relationships between environmental 2014 Examining the relationship between
Helping to improve peoples'
The sample in this study
attitudes, recreation motivations, and attitudes, motivations, and attitude to political and is not representative of
environmentally responsible behaviors responsible behaviors financial support the overall US population

Lack of investigating the
use of other recreational
settings
The relationship between environmental knowledge 2014 Investigating the relationship
Improving environmental
Small sample
and self-efficacy beliefs toward environmental between their environmental knowledge programs
education knowledge and self-efficacy beliefs
Environmental strategies and organizational 2015 Examining the links between
Providing implications for the
Orientating cultural to
competitiveness in the hotel industry: The role of proactive environmental strategies, development of successful analyzing learning and
learning and innovation as determinants of organizational capabilities, and hotel operations and innovation Is a cross-
environmental success competitiveness management sectional study
Travelers' pro-environmental behavior in a green 2015 Designing a comprehensive model
Developing better marketing
Failure to consider the
lodging context: Converging value-belief-norm and service strategies for eco- impact of national
theory and the theory of planned behavior friendly customer retention culture on the theoretical
framework

Using an online survey
method to collect data

3.2.5. Environmental skills
Operational knowledge involves where issues of the environ-
ment are constantly perceived and gathered which lead to position
taking and actions that works towards building and sustaining
environmental knowledge and skills (Ramdas & Mohamed, 2014).
Those abilities required to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate infor-
mation about environmental issues and to evaluate a select issue
based on evidence and personal values. This category also includes
those abilities necessary for selecting appropriate action strategies,
and for creating, evaluating, and implementing an action plan
(Karimzadegan & Meiboudia, 2012).
3.2.6. Environmentally responsible behaviors
Environmental education involves a multidisciplinary method
of teaching and learning that educates individuals to become more
knowledgeable about their environment and to develop respon-
sible environmental behavior and skills in order to work for
improved environmental quality (Blanchet-Cohen & Reilly, 2013).
These behaviors include persuasion, consumer action, eco-
management, political action, and legal action (Karimzadegan &
Meiboudia, 2012).
empathizing with nature and addressing environmental issues
(Zhang et al., 2014). In general, behavioral change related to energy
use and conservation requires a number of components, including
knowledge, motivation, ability, and reinforcement (Craig & Allen,
2015).
3.3. The proposed model
Although no formal universal definition exists for environ-
mental knowledge, some researchers have identified general
principles common to most environmental knowledge definitions.
These include environmental and ecological knowledge, clear po-
sitions on environmental issues, cognitive skills to analyze envi-
ronmental problems, and behavior patterns that are designed to
limit individual environmental impact or contribute to broader
societal efforts to protect the environment. Fig. 1 shows the theo-
retical framework that links there viewed concepts in the paper. In
addition, Table 2 shows the used variables environmental attitudes,
environmental awareness, environmental values, public informa-
tion, environmental skills, and environmental responsibility in the
proposed and related models.

3.2.7. Environmental behavior 3.4. Research hypotheses

Environmental behaviors of people reflect their environmental
knowledge. According to Pe'er, Goldman, and Yavetz (2007), the
environmental behavior is a learned action that does not develop in
a vacuum but in response to interacting components. Environ-
mental behaviors are regarded as the preventative action taken by
individuals to protect the surrounding environment by
To evaluate the proposed model based on the discussed theo-
retical considerations above and the following hypotheses have
been provided:
Attitudes are defined as “a psychological tendency that is
expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of
 B. Zareie, N. Jafari Navimipour / Computers in Human Behavior 59 (2016) 1e8 5

Environmental Public
Values Information

Environmental Environmental
Awareness Skills

Environmental Environmental Environmental

Attitudes Behaviors Responsibility

Fig. 1. The conceptual model.

Table 2
Identification of the study variables.

Reference Variables

Environmental Environmental Environmental Public Environmental Environmental

Attitudes awareness Values information skills responsibility
* * * * * *
The proposed model
* * * *
Han (2015)
* * *
Ramdas and Mohamed (2014)
* *
Kil et al. (2014)
* * * *
Zhang et al. (2014)
€ckner (2013) * * *
Klo

ndez-Manzanal *
Rodríguez-Barreiro, Ferna
et al. (2013)
* * *
Raymond, Brown, and Robinson (2011)
*
Davis, Le, and Coy (2011)
* *
Halpenny (2010)
* * *
Grob (1995)

favor or disfavor.” Attitudes are beliefs and feelings about an object
that cause one to behave consistently toward the object. High level
of knowledge on the environment will create a positive attitude
towards the environment referred to as a belief and feelings that
individual has about the environment. Therefore, the first hy-
pothesis is as follows:
H1. Environmental attitudes have an influence on environmental
behaviors.
Todays, awareness towards critical issues in the environment
has gained much of attention worldwide. Environmental awareness
among people is highly influenced by their background, knowl-
edge, attitude, and sensitivity towards the environment. Therefore,
Hypothesis 2 is as follows:
H2. Awareness of disaster's consequences has an effect on envi-
ronmental behaviors.
The concept of values is not new to the field of environmental
psychology. Values not only representing a society's most central
cultural features, but also influencing individuals' attitudes, norms,
worldviews, beliefs, and behaviors. Hypothesis 3 will test this
assumption:
H3. Environmental values have an influence on environmental
behaviors.
Finally, as we know, knowledge is a precondition for environ-
mental awareness of individuals. It is the people ability to under-
stand and evaluate the impact of a society on the ecosystem.
Hypothesis 4 will test this assumption:
H4. Public information affects environmental behaviors.
Operational knowledge involves where issues of the environ-
ment are constantly perceived and gathered which lead to position
taking and actions that works towards building and sustaining
environmental knowledge and skills. Those abilities require syn-
thesizing, investigating, and evaluating information about envi-
ronmental issues and evaluate an issue based on evidence and
personal values. Hypothesis 5 will test this assumption:
H5. Environmental skills have an influence on environmental
behaviors.
Environmentally responsible behavior is defined as an inten-
tional action of an individual or group to directly or indirectly affect
changes in the environment or to benefit the environment. These
behaviors promote resource protection and conservation, or ac-
tions, which support the sustainable use of natural environments.
Hypothesis 6 will test this assumption:
H6. Environmental responsibility affects environmental
behaviors.
4. Results and discussion
Partial Least Squares (PLS) modeling has been gaining attention
among social scientists in recent years (Chin & Dibbern, 2010). One
of the reasons is that the PLS approach, consistent with standard
6 B. Zareie, N. Jafari Navimipour / Computers in Human Behavior 59 (2016) 1e8
structural equation modeling precepts, provides the researcher
with greater ability to predict and understand the role and for-
mation of individual constructs and their relationships among each
other (Hulland, 1999). Moreover, PLS is often considered more
appropriate than covariance-based modeling techniques like LIS-
REL when the emphasis is prediction since it attempts to maximize
the explained variance in the dependent construct. Furthermore,
sample size requirements are considerably smaller than the mini-
mum recommended for covariance-based techniques especially for
complex models (Chin & Newsted, 1999). In the case of multi-group
structural equation modeling, advanced procedures for group
comparison have been implemented in covariance-based SEM (e.g.,
as provided in AMOS 7.0). This approach, however, can pose high
demands on data properties and sample size. Another less
restrictive way of testing structural equation models across groups
is the use of the component-based procedure, partial least squares
(PLS) (Chin & Dibbern, 2010). PLS, a component-based structural
equation modeling technique was used to test the research model.
The specific software package used was smart PLS 2.0, a software
that has attracted applications from scholars in the marketing and
information systems domains (Zhou, Jin, & Fang, 2014). The PLS
path modeling lacks a well identified global optimization criterion
so that there is no global fitting function to assess the goodness of
the model. Furthermore, it is a variance-based model strongly
oriented to prediction. Thus, model validation mainly focuses on
the model predictive capability (Jafari Navimipour & Soltani, 2016).
Measurement model was evaluated in terms of reliability, conver-
gent validity and discriminant validity of all the constructs, for both
the full sample (N ¼ 330) respectively. The convergent validity was
assessed through using average variance extracted (AVE), which
must exceed a standard minimum level of 0.5 (Fornell & Larcker,
1981). The reliability of the measures was examined with com-
posite reliability and Cronbach's alpha. In general, the minimum
value of composite reliability is 0.7 (Nunnally, 1978), and the
minimum value of Cronbach's alpha is 0.7 (Cronbach, 1951). As
shown in Table 3, Cronbach's a and composite reliabilities of all of
the constructs for the full sample were greater than 0.70, and AVE
were greater than 0.50 indicating the adequate level of reliability.
Table 4 presents every construct's AVE values and the square of
the estimated correlations for each pair of constructs. This infor-
mation confirms the existence of discriminant validity between the
constructs since the AVE values are higher than the squared esti-
mated correlations.
As can be seen in Table 5, the built hypotheses were all positive
and significant. The standardized coefficient between environ-
mental attitudes and environmental behaviors was 0.21 (t ¼ 3.99).
H1, which stated that environmental attitudes had a positive in-
fluence on environmental behaviors, was thus supported. Re-
spondents' environmental behaviors correlated with awareness of
disaster's consequences significantly at p < 0.01, so H2 was sup-
ported as well. The path coefficient between environmental values
and environmental behaviors was 0.11 (t ¼ 2.69). Therefore, hy-
pothesis H3 was statistically accepted. Furthermore, the path
Table 3
Construct reliability and validity for the full sample (N ¼ 330).
Variables AVE Composite reliability Cronbach's alpha
Environmental Attitudes 0.63 0.87 0.80
Environmental Awareness 0.53 0.79 0.70
Environmental Values 0.69 0.90 0.85
Public Information 0.56 0.83 0.70
Environmental Skills 0.73 0.89 0.80
Environmental Responsibility 0.63 0.86 0.76
Environmental Behaviors 0.52 0.93 0.90
coefficient between public information and environmental behav-
ioral was 0.41 (t ¼ 10.50), p < 0.001, which indicates that public
information had a positive and significant influence on environ-
mental behavioral. Environmental skills had a positive influence on
environmental behaviors (0.16, t ¼ 3.64), thus, H5 was supported.
In addition, H6 were proven acceptable (0.14, t ¼ 2.61). The pro-
posed hypotheses were tested with PLS as shown in Table 5.
As shown in Fig. 2, environmental attitudes, environmental
awareness, environmental values, public information, environ-
mental skills, and environmental responsibility directly effect on
Environmental Behaviors; this, H1 (b ¼ 0.21, p < 0.001), H2
(b ¼ 0.12, p < 0.01), H3 (b ¼ 0.11, p < 0.01), H4 (b ¼ 0.41,
p < 0.001), H5 (b ¼ 0.16, p < 0.001), and H6 (b ¼ 0.14, p < 0.01) are
supported.
In PLS, R2 is a statistical measure of the percentage of variance in
a dataset, which can be interpreted as ‘‘the relative amount of
variance of the dependent variable explained or accounted for by
the explanatory variables jointly (Chen, Chuang, & Chen, 2012).’’
For instance, if R2 ¼ 0.615, we say that the explanatory variables
explain 61.5% of the variance of the dependent variable. The range
of R2 is from 0 to 1; however, there is no standard criterion, in
general, the higher the R2, the higher the variance than can be
explained. Consequently, our study provided an integrated model
for examining the influence of environmental attitudes, environ-
mental awareness, environmental values, public information,
environmental skills and environmental responsibility on envi-
ronmental behaviors. Overall, the model explains 61.5% of the
variance in environmental behaviors. Also, recently, a global fit
measure for PLS path modeling has been suggested, GOF
(0 < GOF < 1), defined as the geometric mean of the average
commonality and average R2 value. GOF small ¼ 0.1, GOF
medium ¼ 0.25, and GOF large ¼ 0.36; These may serve as baseline
values for validating the PLS model globally (Wetzels, Odekerken-
Schro€der, & Van Oppen, 2009). The overall model was proven just
acceptable with a good fit for data analysis via GOF index. The GOF
index was calculated by formula:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
GOF ¼ AVE  R2 (1)
We obtained a GOF value of 0.60, which exceeds the cut-off
value of 0.36 for large effect sizes of R2 and allows us to conclude
that our model performs well compared to the baseline values
defined above. Therefore, the structure of model had a good fit with
the data.
5. Conclusions and limitations
In today's world, the term environmental knowledge serves a
very similar function. It has been extended in scope by the addition
of a variety of adjectives science, visual, computer, cultural
knowledge, etc. The field of environmental education has grown
over the past years and more recently is assuming the identifiers of
an emerging profession. Teaching and learning on environmental
education are very necessary and is needed to teach students to act
for the environment. Issues of environmental instability and
worldwide environmental degradation have resulted in a call for
greater emphasis on environmental education in order to create
and maintain optimal and sustainable relationships between the
public and the environment. To counter these challenges, both in-
ternational and interdisciplinary efforts have to be made. Therefore,
since environmental education can have a significant influence on
people behavior, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the
impact of e-learning on people behavior and how to increase
environmental knowledge of students. Literacy acquiring is a
 B. Zareie, N. Jafari Navimipour / Computers in Human Behavior 59 (2016) 1e8 7

Table 4
The discriminant validity for the measurement model.

Variables Environmental Environmental Environmental Public Environmental Environmental Environmental

Attitudes awareness Values information skills responsibility behaviors

Environmental 0.79
Attitudes
Environmental 0.31 0.73
Awareness
Environmental Values 0.14 0.32 0.83
Public information 0.58 0.27 0.21 0.75
Environmental Skills 0.26 0.19 0.24 0.24 0.85
Environmental 0.24 0.56 0.25 0.26 0.16 0.79
Responsibility
Environmental 0.58 0.44 0.34 0.66 0.39 0.42 0.72
Behaviors

Note: Bold diagonal numbers are the square roots of AVE.

Table 5
T-value and path analysis of structural model.

Path Standardized coefficient T-value Contrast

Environmental Attitudes/ Environmental Behaviors 0.21 3.99*** Accepted

Environmental Awareness/ Environmental Behaviors 0.12 3.16** Accepted
Environmental Values/ Environmental Behaviors 0.11 2.69** Accepted
Public Information/ Environmental Behaviors 0.41 10.50*** Accepted
Environmental Skills/ Environmental Behaviors 0.16 3.64*** Accepted
Environmental Responsibility/ Environmental Behaviors 0.14 2.61** Accepted
** ***
NOTE: P < 0.01, P < 0.001.

Environmental Values Public Information

Environmental Environmental Skills

Awareness

Environmental Environmental
Environmental Attitudes
Behaviors Responsibility
(0.615)

Fig. 2. PLS results for testing the hypothesis. Notes: Variance explained (R2) between brackets.

never-ending process and like any form of education, environ-
mental knowledge must never stop, and it has to be promoted and
encouraged at all levels and sectors. Our analyzes clearly demon-
strated that environmental knowledge is associated with people
environmental behaviors. Using smart PLS 2.0, Study we confirmed
the proposed model. The results indicated that: (1) environmental
attitudes have a positively and significantly influence on environ-
mental behaviors; (2) the environmental awareness has a positive
and significant influence on environmental behaviors; (3) the
environmental values have a positive and significant influence on
environmental behaviors. Also, (4) the public information has a
positive and significant influence on environmental behaviors; (5)
the environmental skills have a positive and significant influence
on environmental behaviors; and (6) the environmental re-
sponsibility has a positive and significant influence on environ-
mental behaviors. This study has several limitations. First, the
subsamples were taken only from a university in the country. This
implies that they might not reflect different situations that may
exist in each country, so the results cannot be generalized to these
countries as a whole. Second, data were gathered during a specific
period. Longitudinal studies are needed. Moreover, there is rela-
tively little information about environmental knowledge among
students. As a future work, we plan to extend e-learning for envi-
ronmental knowledge as well as different environmental behavior
patterns examining.
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