scholarly journals Influences that undermine learners’ perceptions of autonomy, competence and relatedness in an online context

Author(s):  
Maggie Katherine Hartnett

<p>Online learning has grown considerably in recent years. However attrition rates from online courses indicate that not all learners are successful in such settings, and various factors have been identified as crucial to learner persistence. Research evidence suggests that motivation is one such factor. This study builds on previous studies by using self-determination theory (SDT) as an analytical framework to explore, in-depth, the motivation of pre-service teachers situated within an online learning context. In particular, the underlying concepts of autonomy, competence and relatedness from SDT were adopted as critical lenses to identify social and contextual influences which undermined the psychological needs of these learners. Most prominent among these in the current study were: high workload, assessment pressure, perceptions that the learning activity lacked relevance (autonomy-undermining), unclear and complicated guidelines, insufficient guidance and feedback from the instructor (competence-undermining), and communication issues with peers (relatedness-undermining). By not exclusively focusing on learners’ autonomy needs as others have done, the paper offers a more extensive picture of undermining influences on motivation than has been previously identified in online studies.</p>

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Liu ◽  
Xiaoxing Huang

Academic resilience refers to the ability to recover and achieve high academic outcomes despite environmental adversity in the academic setting. At the same time, self-determination theory (SDT) offers a human agency model to understand individuals' autonomy to achieve in various fields. The present longitudinal study explored the factors influencing resilience from the analytical framework of SDT to investigate how basic psychological needs strengthen students' resilience. A mediation model was proposed that resilience may mediate the relationship between basic psychological needs and academic performance. The results from 450 10th grade Chinese students showed that three basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) facilitate academic resilience; academic resilience thus increases subsequent academic performance after controlling for previous test scores.


2011 ◽  
pp. 1040-1050
Author(s):  
James M. Laffey ◽  
Christopher J. Amelung

Context-aware activity notification systems have potential to improve and support the social experience of online learning. The authors of this chapter have developed a Context-aware Activity Notification System (CANS) that monitors online learning activities and represents relevant contextual information by providing notification and making the learning activity salient to other participants. The chapter describes previous efforts to develop and support online learning context awareness systems; it also defines the critical components and features of such a system. It is argued that notification systems can provide methods for using the context of activity to support members’ understanding of the meaning of activity. When designed and implemented effectively, CANS can turn course management systems (CMS) into technologies of social interaction to support the social requirements of learning.


Author(s):  
Neil Martin ◽  
Nick Kelly ◽  
Peter Terry

In this paper, we propose a framework for the design of massive open online courses (MOOCs) based upon the principles of self-determination theory, which posits a relationship between intrinsic motivation and the basic psychological need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We also report the results of design-based research that evaluates the application of the framework to a MOOC titled “Elite Sport Performance: Psychological Perspectives”. Satisfying basic psychological needs is theorised as central to course design in order to foster intrinsic motivation, optimise engagement, and improve the retention of course participants. We chronicle the design, implementation, and evaluation of the course, providing examples of support features and learning activities. The course was offered over a period of four months, receiving more than 1000 registrations from across the world. Engagement measures, completion indices, and intrinsic motivation scores are reported as well as sample testimonies from learners. Results offer preliminary evidence that a design framework incorporating self-determination theory has utility in the development of MOOCs that successfully engage learners.


2010 ◽  
pp. 885-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Laffey ◽  
Christopher J. Amelung

Context-aware activity notification systems have potential to improve and support the social experience of online learning. The authors of this chapter have developed a context-aware activity notification system (CANS) that monitors online learning activities and represents relevant contextual information by providing notification and making the learning activity salient to other participants. The chapter describes previous efforts to develop and support online learning context awareness systems; it also defines the critical components and features of such a system. It is argued that notification systems can provide methods for using the context of activity to support members’ understanding of the meaning of activity. When designed and implemented effectively, CANS can turn course management systems (CMS) into technologies of social interaction to support the social requirements of learning.


Author(s):  
James M. Laffey ◽  
Christopher J. Amelung

Context-aware activity notification systems have potential to improve and support the social experience of online learning. The authors of this chapter have developed a Context-aware Activity Notification System (CANS) that monitors online learning activities and represents relevant contextual information by providing notification and making the learning activity salient to other participants. The chapter describes previous efforts to develop and support online learning context awareness systems; it also defines the critical components and features of such a system. It is argued that notification systems can provide methods for using the context of activity to support members’ understanding of the meaning of activity. When designed and implemented effectively, CANS can turn course management systems (CMS) into technologies of social interaction to support the social requirements of learning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (9) ◽  
pp. 1-48
Author(s):  
Karen Brennan ◽  
Sarah Blum-Smith ◽  
Maxwell M. Yurkofsky

Background Although much is known from educational research about factors that support K–12 teacher professional learning, it has been an ongoing challenge to incorporate these factors into practice in new contexts and environments. We argue that these factors are too often treated like a checklist of discrete elements, either present or not, insufficiently attending to the complexities of design and experience. To understand how Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) might support K–12 teacher learning, it is critical to move beyond application of discrete factors to nuanced navigation of the interplay among researcher examination and theorization, designer intention and implementation, and learner use and experience—balancing considerations of learning theory, instructional objectives and specific learning context, and the desires, needs, and experiences of participants. Focus of Study This study examines MOOCs as a medium for supporting teacher professional learning. What did K–12 teachers identify as meaningful about their participation in the Creative Computing Online Workshop (CCOW), a large-scale, constructionist, online learning experience for teachers? How do the teachers’ experiences relate to each other, to learning research, and to the affordances of MOOCs? Research Design This qualitative, interview-based study draws on 15 semistructured interviews with participants 1 year after they completed CCOW, as well as course artifacts. We used an iterative approach to develop common themes reflecting what teachers found meaningful and key tensions present in these themes. Findings Teachers described four qualities as most meaningful to their learning: activity, peers, culture, and relevance. Although these qualities were often mutually supporting, three key tensions among the qualities and the implications for the design of online teacher learning experiences are discussed: autonomy, with structure; diversity, with commonality; and experimentation, with validation. Conclusions This article challenges the notion that implementing successful professional development for K–12 teachers is simply a matter of following a checklist of design elements. This study presents qualities that teachers found meaningful in an online learning experience, offering heuristics that designers might consider when designing for their specific contexts. Future research might assess to what extent the qualities and tensions identified in this study apply to other contexts, and explore the reasons why contextual changes may or may not influence results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. pp388-400
Author(s):  
Colleen Carraher-Wolverton ◽  
Zhiwei Zhu

There exists an increasing demand for online education; however, faculty may question the value of online courses as they grapple with making a connection between the face-to-face classroom and the online learning experience. Much research has focused on factors relating to student engagement, although we posit that faculty engagement represents an important aspect in the online learning context that has been fairly overlooked in the engagement research stream. Therefore, understanding the factors that influence a faculty’s intention to teach an OL course in addition to their level of engagement in teaching an online learning course is vital to the growth and success of an OL program. Therefore, in this study, we seek to not only understand the factors that influence faculty’s intention to teach online learning courses but also an instructor’s level of faculty engagement in online learning courses. We sought a novel lens with which to examine this phenomenon, so this study utilizes the perceived characteristics of innovation (PCI) to examine the relationships between faculty engagement and intention to teach online learning courses. We conducted a survey of 99 instructors from a large public university in order to assess the impact of PCI on faculty engagement and intention to teach online courses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the data, concluding that result demonstration, relative advantage, and compatibility influence a faculty’s level of engagement in an online learning course, which in turn influences their intention to teach an OL course. We discuss how this research can be utilized in order to more effectively allocate scarce resources by focusing on the relative advantage of online learning, the measurability of online learning, and the way in which it can be compatible with instructors teaching preferences. We present this study to enable the beginning of a new stream of research into faculty engagement.   


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. p46
Author(s):  
Sushil Shrestha ◽  
Manish Joshi ◽  
Akash Bashyal ◽  
Arun Timilsina

The study in this research has demonstrated the effectiveness of gamification in changing user behavior and improving user engagement from a psychological perspective. To achieve that, gamification features are integrated in an Online Learning (OL) system. The study is based on self-determination theory, which states that people are motivated to grow and change when three innate psychological needs: competence, autonomy, and relevance are satisfied. Gamification features that can positively support psychological needs are identified through various literature studies and implemented in OL systems. Hence this research is based on a design-based approach in which a tool is developed to observe different behaviors and activities of the students and measure the user engagement directly from the user interactions in an OL system. The results suggest that two psychological needs: competence and relatedness are the main determinants of engagement. The findings suggest that students showed significant user engagement in a gamified OL system. Instructors, students, and researchers (working in the area for improving OL systems) are highly benefited by this research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
Petr Květon ◽  
Martin Jelínek

Abstract. This study tests two competing hypotheses, one based on the general aggression model (GAM), the other on the self-determination theory (SDT). GAM suggests that the crucial factor in video games leading to increased aggressiveness is their violent content; SDT contends that gaming is associated with aggression because of the frustration of basic psychological needs. We used a 2×2 between-subject experimental design with a sample of 128 undergraduates. We assigned each participant randomly to one experimental condition defined by a particular video game, using four mobile video games differing in the degree of violence and in the level of their frustration-invoking gameplay. Aggressiveness was measured using the implicit association test (IAT), administered before and after the playing of a video game. We found no evidence of an association between implicit aggressiveness and violent content or frustrating gameplay.


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