An article produced by an associate professor from Athabasca University and two of his colleagues has won the Editors' Choice Best Article award for 2011 from the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning journal.
AU associate professor of Computing and Information Systems Dr. Jon Dron teamed with Dr. Maggie Hartnett and Dr. Ali St. George from the College of Education for the article, titled ‘Examining Motivation in Online Distance Learning Environments: Complex, Multifaceted, and Situational Dependents’.
“Using self-determination theory (SDT) as a framework, this paper explores the motivation to learn of preservice teachers in two online distance-learning contexts,” the abstract for the journal explains. “In this study, learners were found to be not primarily intrinsically motivated. Instead, student motivation was found to be complex, multifaceted, and sensitive to situational conditions.”
The invention of the internet brought with it the idea of distance education, using Skype, instant messaging and phone calls to gather credits for a degree or diploma. The way youth and young adults are learning and gathering information is considerably different from the way their grandparents received information.
“I was third author on a paper done by my successful PhD student Maggie Hartnett, and it was about motivation and it was in IRRODL (International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning),” Dr Dron. “It’s based on a couple of studies that Maggie did on online and blended students in New Zealand looking at it in the context of self-determination theory.”
The three writers looked at how students described their motivation.
“We discovered that the strange notion in distance learning is that students are intrinsically motivated,” he said.
“Motivation is complicated.”
The piece was chosen for the award for a number of reasons.
“(It) was chosen by editor Terry Anderson and members of the editorial advisory committee based on quality, relevance and value to the discipline,” states the press release.
“We were also guided by the number of downloads, indicating a ‘crowd choice’,” Anderson said.
The journal is produced electronically by Athabasca University.
The piece appears in volume 12, issue six of the journal, and is available online by visiting www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1030.
