Education Commons^™

Influence Of Learner Motivational Dispositions On Mooc Completion, Robert L. Moore, Chuang Wang

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This study examined the role motivational dispositions had on completing a massive open online course (MOOC) using identifiable data from 10,726 students who enrolled in an iteration of the HarvardX MOOC, Super Earths and Life. As part of the course registration process, learners had the option to complete a pre-course survey and self-report information including their level of education, gender and registration motivations. Using these pre-course survey responses, latent profiles linked to learners’ course performance were created. Results showed education background, gender, and motivation were all significantly related to students’ performance. Furthermore, students with intrinsic motivational dispositions performed better than …

The Effects Of Group-Based Context Personalization On Learning Outcomes And Motivation, Jessica J. Resig

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The rise of online course enrollments in higher education has highlighted the need to establish and validate effective online instructional strategies focused on improving learning outcomes and affective responses towards instruction. One such strategy, group-based context personalization, frames instructional materials within contexts relevant to shared interests among groups of students. This study sought to investigate the effects of group-based context personalization on learning outcomes and motivation towards the instruction when materials were contextualized based on a learner’s academic major.

This study employed a true experimental design to explore the effects of group-based context personalization on learning outcomes and motivation for …

Motivation And Learning In An Online Collaborative Project Using Gamification, Michele L. Hudiburg

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

In 2012, there were 2.9 million students enrolled in graduate degrees and 22% were taking strictly online courses (Kena et al., 2014). Many students are not motivated to participate in collaborative learning experiences in online courses (Dirkx & Smith, 2004). Gamification, the inclusion of game elements in non-game contexts, has been shown to have a positive impact on motivation (Deterding, 2012; Kapp, 2012). Prior work has focused on structural gamification including elements such as points, levels, and badges as extrinsic motivators to traditional course activities. The current study explored content gamification including narrative, role-play, interactivity, and feedback in an online …

Motivation, Persistence, And Achievement In Community College Asynchronous Online Courses, Rachel Michelle Desmarais

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Community college students enrolled in asynchronous online courses were examined for the correlational effects of motivation factors upon achievement and persistence in major and non-major courses. A modified version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991) was employed to obtain measurements on motivation and self-regulatory factors. Demographic factors and first generation student status were used to determine any interaction effects.

A series of binary logistic regressions demonstrated significant, positive correlations between self-efficacy and modified MSLQ task value on persistence for these students. A series of ordinal logistic regressions demonstrated significant, positive correlations between …

The Relationship Between Mobile Learning, Instructional Delivery, And Student Motivation In A Large Undergraduate Science Class, Kristen H. Gregory, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Science learning at the early undergraduate level provides a challenging context with large classes and many complex topics to unpack with the students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore: how students use mobile devices for learning in a large, undergraduate classroom; what types of instructional delivery could be used with the devices in this context; and if students were motivated to learn. Classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with the professor were reported and five patterns emerged from these data: connected, personal, multimodal, engaged, and class management. From the overall findings of these data, it would appear that …