Abstract:

This paper explored the students’ motivation and participation in some on-line learning activities offered through the “FutureLearn” platform in the spring term of the 2018 – 2019 academic year.

The authors conducted a study in order to try to discover the factors influencing the motivation of these students to a systematic independent out-of-class educational activity. 106 students from the 1st and 2nd year of a Bachelor Programme and some 1st year students from a Master’s programme of the Moscow State University of Food production became the participants. They were offered a choice of different on-line courses as a part of their English language programme. The only constraints were that their chosen course had to be a topic that was to be delivered in English, and that they were asked to complete the course before the end of the term as an out-of-class educational activity. Blended learning setting was a part of the English language studied. The on-line course was a supplementary task for the students; all of them were daytime students and attended their English classes in addition to the on-line courses.

We have learnt about some differences in the attitudes of these students to the on-line courses and about their preferences in learning styles. Although students were given a choice, most of the 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students chose a course related to their main training programme. All the graduate students only chose on-line courses related to their training. The main topics of the selected courses were "Nutrition", "Computer technology" and "Ecology". Younger students preferred videos with subtitles, whereas the graduate students liked to read articles. Subtitles were not important for them. The ability to write comments was appreciated by graduate students, while undergraduate students did not really like it.

The data were collected by using pre- and post-course surveys and participant’s observations. Most undergraduate students started the course to gain more credit points, while the majority of graduate students wanted to gain professional knowledge. As a result, the on-line courses helped to arouse their interest about other potential sources of information, and thus such information could be gleaned not only from textbooks and lectures as before. The analysis also showed that the students had an overall positive experience of learning by participating in these different on-line courses.

Keywords:

“FutureLearn” platform, motivation, on-line courses, preferences.