Academic Motivation and the Impact of Distance Learning During Lockdown: University Students' Perspective

Abstract

High academic motivation is regarded as a key to a student’s good academic performance and, consequently, a successful future. The spread of online learning not only provided new opportunities for students and educators, but also stimulated interest in the factors that affect academic motivation for this model of education. The situation of spring 2020, when Russian universities switched to remote learning, provided an opportunity to research the relative value of motivation-influencing factors for the students who normally study offline, but unexpectedly found themselves in a new study environment. In early July, 2020, the authors conducted an opinion survey of students (N = 274) from three Russian universities with the following goals: creating a rating of factors that influence academic motivation, obtaining the respondents’ opinions regarding the amount of time spent on studying and its difficulty during lockdown, monitoring changes in motivation after the transition to remote learning. The obtained data show that most respondents rated intrinsic factors as being most important for their academic motivation, however, such extrinsic factors as teachers and their relations with students also make a considerable impact on motivation. Academic motivation is positively affected by the perceived value of new knowledge and skills, by understanding the role of education for future success, and also by material/mo­netary incentives. The most prominent negative factors are a lack of time and absence of a good study environment. Most respondents stated that transition to remote learning made studying harder and more time-consuming. The lockdown is shown to have had a negative effect on motivation for most students, which indicates that extrinsic factors, primarily, the study environment and the smoothness of communication, play a vital role in academic motivation. These results help to gain a better understanding of academic motivation from the students’ perspective, and could be taken into consideration by educators and administrators when making decisions on the study format and the design of offline and online courses.