Factors affecting student motivation in distance education Gunnar Wettergren Stockholm University,

Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, [email protected].

Introduction

Distance education can in many aspects be a lonely affair where

students are left to motivate themselves and to push through barriers
and hurdles with less help and support from peers and teachers, the
sense of isolation is ever present. (Dickey, 2004; Owens et al. 2009;
Venter,2003; Williams et al. 2006)
In a situation where the student is left to self-motivate and to drive
his/her own studies forward there is an apparent need to understand
what factors that affect motivation in distance education. Motivation
has been identified as a critical factor for online education (Lim, 2004),
however it has not been given the attention it deserves in online
education (Jones & Issroff, 2005; Miltiadou & Savenye, 2003) This paper
presents the result of a study conducted at the Department of
Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University aimed at
identifying key factors that affect motivation.
Background Motivation is important in all aspects of life be it in a
professional capacity or as a student at a University. There are two
basic types of motivation: (1) intrinsic and (2) extrinsic. Intrinsic
motivation refers to a person’s internal motivation, his/her own driving
force, for example a student that is interested in a topic/task itself.
Extrinsic on the other hand is external motivation provided by outside
parties, for example a teacher praising a student for his/her good work,
or monetary compensation in the form of a bonus for a professional.
(Ryan & Deci, 2000) There are a large number of motivation theories
that deal with various motivational aspects. We will examine a subset
of these theories that are related to learning and the topic of the paper.
These theories have been selected based on the fact that most of the
factors that will be presented tie in with these theories and these
theories are also important in order to understand the result.
Control theory
Control theory refers to the need of being able to control aspects of our
lives. An important aspect of control theory is self-regulation. (Cleary &
Zimmerman, 2004) Self-regulation can be defined as follows: “In
general, self- regulation involves learners who proactively direct their
behavior or strategies to achieve self-set goals. They also rely on
affective, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral feedback to modify or
adjust their strategies and behaviors when unable to initially attain
their goals” (Cleary & Zimmerman, p.538, 2004). Cognitive evaluation
theory When learners look at tasks in a course they choose/evaluate
the tasks based on how it meets their needs of feeling competent and
in control of their learning situation. Cognitive evaluation theory
influences intrinsic motivation, negatively or positively, depending on
how it affects the perceived competence of the learner. (Deci & Ryan,
1985)
Endowed progress effect
When a learner feels he/she is making progress towards a set goal by
reaching milestones of sub-goals he/she, artificial or real is more
persistent or motivated to continue towards the goal in question.
(Nunes & Drèze, 2006) Goal seeking theory In order to keep ourselves
on track we set goals that must be:  Clear  Challenging  Achievable
The theory also states that goals set by us are more motivating than
goals set by others. (Locke & Latham, 1990) Activation theory This
theory states that mental arousal is needed for us as humans to
function in a good effective way. However, there is a thin line between
a healthy level of arousal that helps us stay focused and motivated and
over arousal that creates stress and dissatisfaction. (Berlyne, 1949,
1967) The Yerkes-Dodson law shows us that as arousal increases so
does motivation and performance, but only to a certain point after
which it goes down again. (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908) Drive theory All
humans have needs that we try to satisfy in our daily lives. The theory
distinguishes between primary needs (survival, protection) and
secondary (social, identity). When we strive to satisfy needs we pick up
habits and certain behavior. (Hull 1943) Self-Determination theory This
theory deals with self-determination and pressure from the outside.
According to this theory there are three basic needs that must be
satisfied: (1) Competence, (2) Relatedness, and (3) Autonomy. In SDT
people are describe based 4 on having an internal or external PLOC
(perceived locus of causality). (Deci & Ryan, 1985) Method The method
used in this paper is grounded theory. This method was selected in
order to give the researcher the freedom to explore the collected
material without having a predefined hypothesis that might limit the
exploration for factors affecting motivation. Grounded theory is a
qualitative research method that is inductive and applied to
information systems it is useful in developing context-based
descriptions of IT-system events and phenomena (Myers,
1997;Goulielmos, 2004). Another strong point is the close connection
between findings and the data, ensured by procedures and processes
of the method (Orlikowski, 1993). The total sample was 398 students
out of a population of 948 (41,9%). This study is based on two questions
that where a part of the course evaluation that students filled out once
completing the course. Namely, (1) Self-studies of any kind relies
heavily on personal motivation, what affects your level of motivation in
a positive way? (2) Self studies of any kind rely heavily on personal
motivation, what affects the level of motivation in a negative was? Data
was collected during a summer course in project management held
2009 and 2010 using an online survey tool. The collected data was then
analyzed according to grounded theory