VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AND THE MYTH OF MOTIVATION?

This study looks at the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) with 51 A-level Physics students in a UK secondary school it looks explicitly at the goal orientations of those students and looks for patterns of behaviour that relate to their goal orientations. It devises a series of templates to aid the analysis of behaviour within a VLE and explores the possibility that the use of a VLE may increase motivation. It finds that while VLEs provide a resource that is valued by some students, not all students use it and of those that do, many use it minimally. The set up costs in terms of teacher time are high, particularly in relation to the time spent on the VLE by students. The benefits of VLEs must be weighed up against these costs. This study suggests that it is possible that for some students use of the VLE does increase Mastery Goal (MG) behaviour. Small sample sizes due to incomplete data sets limit the conclusions that can be drawn, however many areas for future study are suggested. In particular, the need to better understand the Performance Goal (PG) students within an A-level setting.