A MEASURE OF MOTIVATION IN AN ONLINE ASTRONOMY COURSE

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Motivation is defined as the factors that cause individuals to move towards specific tasks (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Extrinsic motivations, such as grades, lead to less positive educational outcomes than intrinsic motivations, such as curiosity (Krou, Fong, & Hoff, 2021). There is extensive literature on student motivation, with several models suggesting that the following factors positively affect a student’s motivation: feelings of competency and self-efficacy, opportunities for autonomy (Pintrich, 2003), and a sense of belonging (Pedler, Willis, & Nieuwoudt, 2022).

In this presentation, we aim to understand how the motivations of students change over the duration of an astronomy course and identify factors that influence this change. This study fills a gap in current knowledge around students’ motivations in introductory astronomy courses and provides valuable insights into simple techniques that may improve students’ motivations broadly.

DESIGN AND METHOD

Twice in the teaching period (beginning and end), a motivation questionnaire (a combination of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) (Pintrich & de Groot, 1990) and the Motivation to Learn Online Questionnaire (MLOQ) (Fowler, 2018)) was administered in a wholly online introductory astronomy course. An additional open-ended question about factors affecting motivation was included in the end survey. The survey quantifies the following seven factors for each student on a Likert scale: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, task value, expectancy, self-efficacy, social engagement, and instructor support. Mean Likert scale data for each factor were calculated for each student for the beginning and end survey data. An unpaired t-test determined statistical significance. The means are also used to quantify the proportion of students moving between levels of agreement for each factor during the course. A thematic analysis was performed on the open-ended question.

RESULTS

Data collection is ongoing; these are preliminary results for two cohorts of students (N = 266 for the beginning of the teaching period survey and N = 180 for the end of the teaching period survey). Intrinsic motivation was significantly higher after completion of the course compared to the start (p < 0.05), as shown in Fig. 1. No other factor saw a significant change. The proportion of students that had “high” intrinsic motivation (agreed with the intrinsic motivation questions) shifted from 49.4% to 64.4% during the course, as shown in Fig. 2. The proportion that had “low” intrinsic motivation (disagreed) saw a small shift from 3.8% to 4.5%, and those with “medium” intrinsic motivation (a mixture of agree/disagree) shifted from 46.8% to 31.1%.

Our thematic analysis yielded factors such as interesting content, freedom of choice, acquisition of knowledge, and format of assessments as influencing their motivation.

Fig. 1. Mean Likert scale data for each factor affecting motivation. Error bars are standard deviations.

Fig. 2. Proportions of students rated as having “high”, “medium”, and “low” intrinsic motivation.

Combining survey result analysis with a thematic analysis shows that the intrinsic motivation of students in the online astronomy course was higher at the end of the course compared to the beginning, and factors such as interesting content, freedom of choice, acquisition of knowledge, and format of assessments influenced their motivation. This research identifies factors that affect motivation for learning and can guide course developments.

REFERENCES

Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1985) Conceptualizations of Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination. In: Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Perspectives in Social Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7_2.

Fowler, S. (2018) The motivation to learn online questionnaire [Doctoral thesis]. The University of Georgia.

Krou, M.R., Fong, C.J. & Hoff, M.A. (2021) Achievement Motivation and Academic Dishonesty: A Meta-Analytic Investigation. Educ Psychol Rev, 33, 427–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09557-7.

Pedler, M. L., Willis, R., & Nieuwoudt, J. E. (2022) A sense of belonging at university: student retention, motivation and enjoyment, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(3), 397-408, https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2021.1955844.

Pintrich, P. R. (2003) A motivational science perspective on the role of student motivation in learning and teaching contexts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(4), 667–686.

Pintrich, P.R., & de Groot, E. V. (1990) Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1), 33-40.