Self-Regulation and Academic Motivation as Predictors of Academic Achievement of Undergraduate Students in an Online Learning Environment

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether self-regulation and academic motivation are related to undergraduate student academic achievement in an online learning environment. This implies that the main variables in this research were student-related factors including self-regulation, academic motivation, and academic achievement. The data were collected using self-report questionnaires, and the sample population consisted of 300 undergraduate students taking online courses in the United States. QuestionPro hosted the survey. The Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) and Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) were used to measure self-regulation and academic motivation, respectively. The number of taken courses, cumulative grade GPA, and year in college were used to measureacademic achievement. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data, and Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM) was used to understand gender differences between the variables. The data was collected, screened, and analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. The result of this study shows that the participants were moderately self-regulated and academically motivated. For academic achievement, 41% of the participants were seniors, 60% of participants took four or fewer online courses, and 68% had a GPA above 3. Also, the study identified no link between self-regulation and academic motivation and no gender differences between male and female in the academic achievement of undergraduate students in an online learning environment. The sample representativeness limited the generalizability of research findings. There is one implication for practice is the need to broaden the sample size. Future research should examine the role of individual differences.