Examining academic motivation levels of undergraduate students taking distance education during the covid-19 pandemic in terms of various variables

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the academic motivation levels of undergraduate students taking distance education during the pandemic in terms of various demographic and technology-related variables. The research was designed with survey model. Data of the study were collected from 170 undergraduate students. "Academic Motivation Scale" and personal information form were used as data collection tools. The collected data were analyzed with Kendall's tau correlation test, independent sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance. According to results of the study, it was found that academic intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels of the undergraduates taking distance education are high and their amotivation levels are low. It was determined that there were significant differences between the students' thoughts on whether to pursue postgraduate education in the future and their academic intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels, but there was not any significant difference between amotivation dimension. Also, it was found that there were significant relationships between technology usage proficiency and intrinsic motivation of undergraduate students. Lastly, it was determined that there were significant relationships between average daily usage time of technological devices and their academic extrinsic motivation. Suggestions were offered in accordance with the results of the study.