ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Student engagement, specifically emotional engagement, is a predictor to positive learning outcomes and academic success. Autonomy, competence, and relatedness have been associated with engagement; however, these studies have not been done in nursing. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine if autonomy, competence, and relatedness predicted emotional engagement among graduate nursing students in the online learning environment. METHODS: A descriptive, correlational design was used to determine the levels of and relationships among emotional engagement and autonomy, competence, and relatedness as well as predictors of emotional engagement in students (n = 123) in online nursing programs. RESULTS: Findings revealed that students were emotionally engaged in their learning, and competence was the only predictor of emotional engagement. CONCLUSION: Competency-based learning strategies should be implemented in online learning environments to increase the emotional engagement of graduate nursing students.
