Online vs. Classroom Learning: Examining Motivational and Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Among Vocational Education and Training Students.

Carla Quesada-Pallarès,Angelina Sánchez-Martí,Anna Ciraso-Calí,Pilar Pineda-Herrero

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02795

Abstract

Numerous studies have been conducted to explore students’ employment of motivational and self-regulated learning strategies (SRL). Research highlights the importance of having motivated students equipped with strategies that help them self-regulate their learning, this being highly important when learning is acquired through online learning programs. Nonetheless, such research has been scarce with Vocational Education and Training (VET) students; this is the gap in the literature this paper aims to address. The article analyzes the degree to which VET students employ motivational and SRL strategies by comparing them according to the learning mode chosen. To achieve this, a quantitative approach was adopted to carry out a cross-sectional study. A total of 577 first-year VET students responded to an online questionnaire based on some of the motivational and SRL strategies scale included in Pintrich’s model. Statistical analyses were applied to test two hypotheses. Pintrich’s model was validated through a confirmatory factor analysis considering its application to Catalan VET students for the first time. The results reveal significant differences between classroom and online students in terms of levels of metacognitive self-regulation and effort regulation when starting a VET program. However, this difference might not be entirely explained by the learning mode chosen. The findings of this study will provide VET researchers and practitioners with a greater understanding of their students’ characteristics when starting the program and the means to develop strategies that ensure their engagement throughout the course.

Highlights

There has been an international explosion of online learning and products in recent years, including the online delivery of Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs (Brennan et al, 2001)
In order to choose the most relevant scales, we considered metacognitive self-regulation and effort regulation to be the strategies most related to the concept of “learning to learn,” this emerging as one of the key competences for apprentices in a previous phase of the research based on interviews with stakeholders
After testing the first model, simulating Pintrich’s (1990) original, the results suggested that the latent factor of metacognitive selfregulation had small regression weights on Items 1 and 8

Summary

Introduction

There has been an international explosion of online learning and products in recent years, including the online delivery of Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs (Brennan et al, 2001). Online VET changes the relationship between educators and learners, interaction with the learning content, and among learners themselves, and contributes to alleviating time and space barriers. Students enrolled on an online VET course have the freedom to acquire learning whenever and wherever they have the opportunity to. This situation allows students to control how they learn, the pace of their learning, and how to balance their daily tasks with the need to attend the course (Graham, 2006; Alkis and Taskaya, 2018). This paper analyzes the degree to which students employ motivational and SRL strategies a few months after beginning a VET program. The aims of the study implemented to ascertain this were to provide VET researchers and practitioners with a greater understanding of their students’ characteristics when starting the program and the means to develop strategies that ensure their engagement throughout the course

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Conclusion