ATTRIBUTION THEORY: A FRAMEWORK FOR STUDENT INVOLVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT IN ONLINE LEARNING

Online learning has created a new environment for adult students and other full time workers all over the world to acquire educational credentials from distant institutions. Online learning has the tendency to make students responsible for their own learning. This responsibility is often not recognized by students. Some students assume that online learning is easier than the traditional face to face models of classroom learning and therefore waste valuable time in organizing their own learning. Some of them have the erroneous tendency to attribute their failures to other sources such as teachers or technical difficulties. The main argument of attribution theory is that students find reasons for their success or failure whenever they complete a learning task. The cause of their success or failure may be self or others. When the cause of success is attributed to their own effort, students are motivated to engage in future learning tasks, because they see the results of their labor as positive. Even though such students attribute their success to their own effort, they recognize the inputs from others such as teachers, and peers. They tend to cooperate with their teachers and peers in the classroom because they see them as sources for their success in the learning process. In some cases, students fail to achieve the learning target. When this occurs, they try to find out the reasons why they were not successful in their endeavor. Some students accept full responsibility for their failure because they see it as a personal challenge that they can overcome when they give the task the right attention and effort. Such students are ready to assume responsibility for their own learning. In this case, they may resolve to learn harder next time to achieve the learning target. On the other hand, when students see others as the cause of their failure, they are often not motivated to exert pressure on learning because they tend to think that their efforts will lead to nothing worthwhile. This form of thinking or reasoning is likely to lead to learned helplessness. Even if they decide to continue to learn, they often prefer to do so under different environment or teachers. Available data indicate that students may blame others for their poor academic work for the sole purpose of providing themselves face saving devices to hide their own failures. Attribution theory also makes it clear that “the most direct way to enhance learners’ intrinsic motivation is to teach in ways that convince learners that success is largely due to factors under their control.” The aim of this presentation is to discuss attribution theory and its implication for online teaching and learning. Another aim is to discuss strategies educators may use to make students responsible for their own leaning in the online environment. This study is significant in the sense that online learning is helping many adults acquire higher education credentials to improve their skills at the workplace. However, many adult students are finding it hard organizing and motivating themselves to balance work and academic work. This paper is designed to provide both teachers and students ideas and strategies that will help them make the most of their time online.