Students' motivations and their contributions to virtual learning

  • Authors:

  • Bart Rienties;Dirk Tempelaar;Piet Van Den Bossche;Wim Gijselaers;Mien Segers

  • Affiliations:

  • Maastricht University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht;Maastricht University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht;Maastricht University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht;Maastricht University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht;Maastricht University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht

  • Venue:
  • ICLS'08 Proceedings of the 8th international conference on International conference for the learning sciences - Volume 2
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

In recent years, increasing attention has been devoted to virtual learning. Individual characteristics are known to play a crucial role in learning processes but only limited research has been conducted in the context of virtual settings. Therefore, we used an integrated multimethod approach in order to examine the impact of types of academic motivation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) on virtual learning. This study of 100 online summer course participants indicates that the willingness to contribute to discourse depends on the type of motivation. Intrinsically motivated learners became central and prominent contributors to cognitive discourse. In contrast, extrinsically motivated learners contributed less and were positioned on the outer fringe of the social network.