UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Motivation for and Within
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Motivation for and within Online College Courses DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Education by Peter McPartlan Dissertation Committee Members: Distinguished Professor Jacquelynne Eccles, Chair Professor Mark Warschauer Assistant Professor Di Xu Assistant Professor Teomara Rutherford 2019 © 2019 Peter McPartlan DEDICATION To my parents and my wife, Denise who have always made me feel like I belong “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right” -Henry Ford ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... VIII MCPARTLAN, P., UMARJI, O., & ECCLES, J. SELECTIVE ATTENTION AND EXPOSURE TO ENCOURAGEMENT: HOW MULTIPLE SOURCES OF ABILITY FEEDBACK AFFECT ADOLESCENTS’ MATH SELF-CONCEPT. SUBMITTED TO JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE, FEBRUARY, 2018. ........................................................................................ XI ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ................................................................................ XVIII INTRODUCTION – THE STATE OF ONLINE EDUCATION IN THE U.S. ............................. 1 LITERATURE REVIEW – THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN ONLINE COURSES ............... 8 DOES MOTIVATION EXPLAIN WHO SELECTS INTO ONLINE COURSES? (INTRO TO STUDY 1) ............... 8 DO ONLINE COURSES AFFECT STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION? (INTRODUCTION TO STUDY 2) ................. 13 ARE MOTIVATIONAL INTERVENTIONS ESPECIALLY EFFECTIVE FOR ONLINE STUDENTS? (INTRO TO STUDY 3) ....................................................................................................................................... 19 MODALITY MOTIVATION: SELECTION EFFECTS AND MOTIVATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN STUDENTS WHO CHOOSE TO TAKE COURSES ONLINE ................. 27 METHODS ...................................................................................................................................... 28 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................ 33 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................... 47 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 54 BELONGING ACROSS CONTEXTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND MEASUREMENT OF A POPULAR MOTIVATIONAL CONSTRUCT .................................. 56 METHODS ...................................................................................................................................... 56 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 60 GENERAL DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 72 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 77 iii THE UTILITY OF CLICK DATA: BEHAVIORAL MEDIATORS OF MOTIVATIONAL INTERVENTIONS ....................................................................................................................... 79 METHODS ...................................................................................................................................... 79 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................ 85 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................... 97 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 102 GENERAL DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................... 104 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 109 APPENDIX A: STUDY 1 - MODALITY MOTIVATION REASONS BY COURSE ............. 123 APPENDIX B: STUDY 2 - QUALITATIVE CODING SCHEME AND RESULTS ............... 127 APPENDIX C: STUDY 3 – SURVEY MEASURES ................................................................ 137 iv LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1.1 STUDENT REASONS FOR CHOOSING ONLINE OR FACE-TO-FACE COURSES .................................................................................................................................... 38 v LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1.1 OVERVIEW OF COURSES INCLUDED IN STUDY ........................................... 29 TABLE 1.2 COMPARISON OF MOTIVATION VARIABLES BY COURSE MODALITY ... 35 TABLE 1.3 COMPARISON OF RELATIVE IMPORTANCE AND TARGET GRADES BY COURSE MODALITY ................................................................................................................ 36 TABLE 1.4 COLLAPSED CATEGORIES OF REASONS FOR CHOOSING OL COURSE ... 41 TABLE 1.5 MEDIANS FOR COURSE OUTCOMES BY COURSE MODALITY AND REASONS FOR SELECTING OL COURSE .............................................................................. 43 TABLE 1.6 ASSOCIATION OF DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES WITH COURSE MODALITY CHOICE AND MODALITY SELECTION REASON .......................................... 45 TABLE 1.7 ASSOCIATIONS OF DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AND COURSE PERFORMANCE BY COURSE MODALITY ........................................................................... 47 TABLE 3.1 SUMMARY STATISTICS AND RANDOMIZATION CHECK OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND MOTIVATIONAL VARIABLES BY INTERVENTION CONDITION ....................................................................................................................................................... 86 TABLE 3.2 ASSOCIATIONS OF MISSING PRE-SURVEY DATA WITH MEANS OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND ACHIEVEMENT VARIABLES .......................................................... 87 TABLE 3.3 EFFECTS OF UVI IN F2F COURSE - ITT AND TOT ESTIMATES ................... 89 TABLE 3.4 EFFECTS OF UVI IN OL COURSE - ITT AND TOT ESTIMATES .................... 90 TABLE 3.5 EFFECTS OF UVI BY COURSE MODALITY - ITT AND TOT ESTIMATES ... 91 TABLE 3.6 PARTIAL CORRELATIONS OF FINAL GRADE WITH EXPECTANCY-VALUE CONSTRUCTS BY WAVE ......................................................................................................... 92 TABLE 3.7 CORRELATIONS OF FINAL COURSE GRADE WITH CLICK BEHAVIOR .... 94 TABLE 3.8 CORRELATIONS OF MOTIVATIONAL VARIABLES WITH CLICK BEHAVIOR .................................................................................................................................. 96 vi vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [grant number 1535300]. An incredible amount of time, energy, and resources were given to me in order to support not only this dissertation, but also my overall experience as a doctoral student. I would like to thank my biggest supporters, Jacque Eccles and Mark Warschauer, for their time, which is clearly a coveted resource across campus. I decided to join the research community as a doctoral student because I felt it was just that: a community. Jacque and Mark’s unwavering support of so many students, including myself, reaffirms more than anything that I made the right choice to join this group of academics. You have set a fantastic example of how to help others through the rigorous application of scientific principles to the study of education, all the while pushing for innovative approaches and strengthening the communities around you. I’d also like to thank advisors Teya Rutherford and Di Xu. You showed your confidence in me by bringing me onto your own projects and always made me feel comfortable that I could ask you the questions I was too scared to ask others. I’m so excited to have you as mentors and look forward to working with you even more in the years to come. My family has been incredibly supportive of my journey to this point. From my parents encouraging my young love of psychology to my wife Denise helping me understand entirely new cultures and experiences, I’ve had so many opportunities to grow my passion for this subject outside of school alone. Most importantly, you’ve nurtured an incredibly important life skill that also happens to be crucial for this field of study, which is the ability to put myself in the shoes of another. I can’t thank you enough for how that has helped give me perspective both in my work and in my life. viii Finally, I’d like to thank the peers with whom I completed this program. They’ve reluctantly discovered that every conversation can be related to sense of belonging somehow, but their support and camaraderie has been the biggest part of creating that sense of belonging for me. Osman, I’m so glad that we got to share so much of this experience. I can’t imagine having had a better research partner, coteacher, and sounding board! ix CURRICULUM VITAE Peter McPartlan EDUCATION Ph.D. Education: Learning, Teaching, Cognition, and Development June, 2019 Advisor: Dr. Jacquelynne Eccles School of Education, University of California,