Examining the effects of academic motivation and online learning on Malaysian tertiary students’ psychological well-being and perceived learning performance

Abstract

This study investigated how online learning, mandated for tertiary education over one year in Malaysia since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, impacted students’ perceived learning performance and psychological well-being. This study focused on the relationship between academic motivation, psychological engagement (enthusiasm, perseverance, and reconciliation), and their impact on perceived learning performance and psychological well-being, with psychological engagement acting as a mediator. This study collected survey responses from 288 students at 49 higher learning institutions in Malaysia using purposive sampling in March 2022. The results revealed that intrinsic motivation is the sole predictor of enthusiasm engagement. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations jointly influence perseverance engagement, while reconciliation is significantly affected by all three types of motivations. The mediation analysis results suggest that enthusiasm engagement mediates the relationship between intrinsic motivation and two outcome variables. Furthermore, perseverance engagement mediates the relationship between both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations with the two outcome variables. In contrast, reconciliation serves as a mediator for the relationship between amotivation and learning performance, as well as the relationship between extrinsic motivation and both learning performance and psychological well-being. Overall, the study highlights the importance of academic motivation and psychological engagement in online learning in tertiary education.