Determinants of students’ well-being and ill-being in remote learning: Focusing on the need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviours by instructors

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 has led to remote classes in many universities, but the impacts on students are not clear. Guided by Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory, this study explored how remote classes were conducted by teachers in Japanese universities and examined the effect of teaching styles on students’ well- and ill-being. A pilot survey (N = 200) was conducted to collect instructor’s teaching behaviours in remote classes via open-ended questions. The main survey was conducted with 400 undergraduates;200 were taking real-time online classes and 200 were taking on-demand classes. The participants were asked to indicate the teaching style of a class they received, need satisfaction and dissatisfaction from the class, and their well-being/ill-being. Factor analysis on teaching style’s items revealed three factors “clear direction”, “lack of concern”, and “interaction”. Supporting the self-determination theory, structural equation modeling revealed that clear direction was related to well-being by mediating need satisfaction, whereas the lack of concern was related with ill-being by mediating need dissatisfaction. Moreover, clear direction and interaction were directly related with students’ well-being without mediating need satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The effective and appropriate methods for teachers who conduct remote classes is also discussed.