Emergency Online Learning: The Effects of Interactional, Motivational, Self-Regulatory, and Situational Factors on Learning Outcomes and Continuation Intentions

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of interactional, motivational, self-regulatory, and situational factors on university students' online learning outcomes and continuation intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 255 students taking a business course at a university in southern China. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that while family financial hardship caused by COVID-19 was a marginally significant negative predictor of students' learning outcomes, learnercontent interaction;instructors' provision of e-resources, course planning, and organisation;and students' intrinsic goal orientation and meta-cognitive self-regulation were significant positive predictors with the latter two sets of predictors mediating the effects of learner-instructor and learnerlearner interactions, respectively. Multinominal logistic regression analyses showed that learnerinstructor interaction, learner-content interaction, and private learning space were significant positive predictors of students' intentions to continue with online learning, but learner-learner interaction was a significant negative predictor. These findings point to the differential effects of various types of interactional and situational factors on learning outcomes and continuation intentions, and the instructor- and learner-level factors that mediate the effects of learner-instructor and learner-learner interactions on learning outcomes. They contribute to our understandings of emergency online learning and provide implications for facilitating it.