Basic psychological needs to online engagement and achievement among first-year undergraduates

Abstract

Empirical research has largely focused on either identifying online learner characteristics or best practices to support online learning in higher education settings. Yet gaps remain in our empirical understanding of which and to what extent certain factors influence online learning. This exploratory study sought to corroborate the influence of three student-level variables in Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs) of autonomy, competence, and relatedness among students as they participate in online higher education coursework. This study conducted multiple regression modelling on 159 cases of first-year undergraduate students to determine the extent to which the three variables relate to engagement and achievement in online coursework. Results present preliminary empirical evidence that the basic psychological need for autonomy relates to achievement in online coursework. However, the other basic psychological needs of competence and relatedness did not clearly relate with either engagement or achievement. Results in part affirm the claim that efforts to drive student achievement in online higher education coursework ought to embed elements that support student autonomy. And results support a position of nuance where BPNs influence specific dimensions rather than all dimensions of online higher education learning as a catch-all construct.

Keywords

• basic psychological needs
• online instruction
• student engagement
• student achievement
• higher education