Abstract:

Previous research has indicated that both study attitudes and study behaviour act as significant predictors of students’ satisfaction with (online) study programmes. In this piece of empirical research, however, we moved away from the broader conceptualization of those concepts and decided to investigate in more detail how motivational aspects and the adoption of specific learning strategies relate to satisfaction of online students. Motivational aspects of studying/learning may be viewed as a more specific segment of study attitudes, while learning strategies represent a more straightforward operationalization of the broader concept of study behaviour. Efforts to enhance and promote students’ satisfaction with study programmes is of vital importance, especially for the private higher education institutions operating in a highly competitive international market.

The current study addressed all the students at DOBA Business School in Slovenia, which is one of the largest providers of online study programmes in South-Eastern Europe. A self-selective sample of n = 365 respondents has been achieved, which accounts for a response rate of 28 percent. The data was collected by means of a structured online survey questionnaire that was distributed to students via their official school e-mail addresses. The survey questionnaire was adapted on the basis of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) that was originally designed by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia and McKeachie (1991). MLSQ contains motivational scales and learning strategies scales. In addition, demographic variables and measures of satisfaction with the implementation of the study programmes were added to the survey questionnaire. Data collection took place in June 2019.

Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to assess the predictive value of motivational aspects and learning strategies for students’ satisfaction. The results revealed that motivational scales explain around 26 percent of variance in satisfaction, while the addition of learning strategies scales does not significantly improve the explanatory power of the regression model. Task value and control beliefs are the two motivational scales that are significantly positively related to students’ satisfaction.

The paper discusses the practical implications of research results and reviews the opportunities for teachers/staff in (re)designing the online courses and their pedagogical approaches in order to strengthen the motivational aspects of students, task value and control beliefs in particular, and thus contribute to increased satisfaction.

Keywords:

Online students, learning motivation, learning strategies, satisfaction.