Research: Staying the course: Understanding the motivational factors contributing to persistence among undergraduate engineering students in online courses

这项研究将调查参加在线课程的工科本科生完成课程的动机，而不是辍学。网络课程已成为工科本科教育中一种越来越常用和重要的教学手段。在线形式可以为那些本来可能无法获得教育机会的学生提供教育机会，因此有可能对国家工程劳动力的规模和构成产生积极影响。然而，与更传统的面授课程相比，参加在线课程的学生退学率更高。这项拟议的工作将利用亚利桑那州立大学的在线本科工程学位课程来生成一个模型，该模型基于以下类型的数据来描述和预测课程级别的持久性：学生个人的属性，显示学生在在线课程学习管理系统中点击的位置和时间的跟踪数据，以及关于在线课程本身的信息。这项工作的直接影响将是增加对工科本科生选择留在或放弃在线课程的原因的理解。从长远来看，这些发现也将有助于支持更多的在线工科本科生成功完成他们的学位课程。在该项目期间，将开发一个基于学生动机理论以及在线和本科生工科学生坚持性的在线课程水平坚持性模型，并进行实证评估。该项目提出了三项研究。学生体验研究采用纵向、面对面的方法，调查工科本科生在线课程的经历如何影响他们对课程成功可能性的信念、他们对课程价值的看法、他们对课程的投入程度，以及他们完成课程的最终决定。学习管理系统交互研究将基于学习者的关联分类技术应用于亚利桑那州立大学在线本科工程课程的历史数据，以描述学生与在线课程学习管理系统的互动模式，因为他们与课程水平的持久性有关。最终的持久性建模研究从这些模式中生成了课程参与度的统一度量。该测量将用于纵向结构方程建模分析，该分析比较在线课程水平持续性模型的三种变体：(1)其中包括敬业度作为课程成功预期、课程任务值、课程特征感知和课程水平持续性之间关系的部分中介的变体，(2)将敬业度概念化为课程成功预期、课程任务值、课程特征感知和课程完成的持久性之间关系的完全中介的变体，和(3)完全不包括参与的变体。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。

This study will investigate the factors that motivate undergraduate engineering students enrolled in online courses to complete the courses, rather than drop out. Online courses have become an increasingly utilized and important instructional method in undergraduate engineering education. The online format can provide educational opportunities to students who otherwise may not have access and, therefore, has the potential to positively affect the size and makeup of the nation's engineering workforce. However, students in online courses drop out of these courses at greater rates than those in more traditional, face-to-face courses. The proposed work will utilize the online undergraduate engineering degree programs at Arizona State University to generate a model that describes and predicts course-level persistence based on the following types of data: attributes of individual students, tracking data that shows where and when students click within their online course learning management system, and information about the online courses themselves. The immediate impact of the work will be an increased understanding of the reasons that undergraduate engineering students choose to stay in or drop online courses. In the longer term, the findings will also contribute to efforts that support a greater percentage of online undergraduate engineering students successfully completing their degree programs.During the project, a Model of Online Course-level Persistence in Engineering grounded in theories of student motivation and online and undergraduate engineering student persistence will be developed and empirically evaluated. The project proposes three studies. The Student Experiences Study uses a longitudinal, within-person approach to investigate how undergraduate engineering students' experiences in their online course influence their beliefs about their likelihood of success in the course, their perceptions of the value of the course, their level of engagement in the course, and their ultimate decision to complete the course. The Learning Management System Interaction Study applies the learner-based technique of associative classification to historical data from online undergraduate engineering courses at Arizona State University to describe students' patterns of engagement with their online course learning management system as they relate to course-level persistence. The final Persistence Modeling Study generates a unified measure of course engagement from these patterns. This measure will be used in a longitudinal structural equation modeling analysis that compares three variations on the model of online course-level persistence: (1) a variation in which engagement is included as a partial mediator of the relationships between expectancies of course success, course task values, perceptions of course characteristics, and course-level persistence, (2) a variation in which engagement is conceptualized as a full mediator of the relationships between expectancies of course success, course task values, perceptions of course characteristics, and persistence to course completion, and (3) a variation in which engagement is not included at all.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.