Distance learning in higher education during COVID-19: The role of basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation for persistence and procrastination-a multi-country study

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher educational institutions worldwide switched to emergency distance learning in early 2020. The less structured environment of distance learning forced students to regulate their learning and motivation more independently. According to self-determination theory (SD...

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Published in:	PloS one Vol. 16; no. 10; p. e0257346
Main Authors:	Pelikan, Elisabeth R, Korlat, Selma, Reiter, Julia, Holzer, Julia, Mayerhofer, Martin, Schober, Barbara, Spiel, Christiane, Hamzallari, Oriola, Uka, Ana, Chen, Jiarui, Välimäki, Maritta, Puharić, Zrinka, Anusionwu, Kelechi Evans, Okocha, Angela Nkem, Zabrodskaja, Anastassia, Salmela-Aro, Katariina, Käser, Udo, Schultze-Krumbholz, Anja, Wachs, Sebastian, Friðriksson, Finnur, Gunnþórsdóttir, Hermína, Höller, Yvonne, Aoyama, Ikuko, Ieshima, Akihiko, Toda, Yuichi, Konjufca, Jon, Llullaku, Njomza, Gedutienė, Reda, Borg Axisa, Glorianne, Avirovic Bundalevska, Irena, Keskinova, Angelka, Radulovic, Makedonka, Lewandowska-Walter, Aleksandra, Michałek-Kwiecień, Justyna, Plichta, Piotr, Pyżalski, Jacek, Walter, Natalia, Cautisanu, Cristina, Voda, Ana Iolanda, Gao, Shang, Islam, Sirajul, Wistrand, Kai, Wright, Michelle F, Lüftenegger, Marko
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 06-10-2021 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Adult Austria Autonomy Biology and Life Sciences Colleges & universities Context Coronaviruses COVID-19 COVID-19 - epidemiology COVID-19 - psychology Cross-Sectional Studies Curricula Distance education Distance learning Education Education, Distance Education, Higher Educational aspects Educational psychology Epidemics Europe Female Funding Higher education institutions Humanities Humans Informatics Learning behavior Learning strategies Male Management Medicine and Health Sciences Methods Motivation Nursing schools Pandemics People and places Philosophy Prevention Procrastination SARS-CoV-2 Science Policy Social behavior Social discrimination learning Social distancing Social Sciences Students - psychology Surveys and Questionnaires Teacher education Technology application Young Adult Europe Austria Sweden Kosovo China Japan Finland Poland North Macedonia Iceland Germany Estonia Albania
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Summary:	Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher educational institutions worldwide switched to emergency distance learning in early 2020. The less structured environment of distance learning forced students to regulate their learning and motivation more independently. According to self-determination theory (SDT), satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and social relatedness affects intrinsic motivation, which in turn relates to more active or passive learning behavior. As the social context plays a major role for basic need satisfaction, distance learning may impair basic need satisfaction and thus intrinsic motivation and learning behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between basic need satisfaction and procrastination and persistence in the context of emergency distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in a cross-sectional study. We also investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Furthermore, to test the universal importance of SDT for intrinsic motivation and learning behavior under these circumstances in different countries, we collected data in Europe, Asia and North America. A total of N = 15,462 participants from Albania, Austria, China, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Poland, Malta, North Macedonia, Romania, Sweden, and the US answered questions regarding perceived competence, autonomy, social relatedness, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, persistence, and sociodemographic background. Our results support SDT's claim of universality regarding the relation between basic psychological need fulfilment, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, and persistence. However, whereas perceived competence had the highest direct effect on procrastination and persistence, social relatedness was mainly influential via intrinsic motivation.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0257346