Motivation in Online Education

This work explores and explicates learner motivation in online learning environments. More specifically, it uses a case-study approach to examine undergraduate students' motivation within two formal and separate online learning contexts. In doing so, it recognizes the mutually constitutive relationship of the learner and the learning environment in relation to motivation. This is distinctive from other approaches that tend to focus on designing and creating motivating environments or, alternatively, concentrate on motivation as a stable learner characteristic. In particular, this book identifies a range of factors that can support or undermine learner motivation and discusses each in detail. By unraveling the complexity of learner motivation in such environments, it provides useful guidelines for teachers, instructional designers and academic advisors tasked with building and teaching within online educational contexts.

Maggie Hartnett is a senior lecturer in the Institute of Education at Massey University, New Zealand, where she coordinates and teaches in the area of e-learning at postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Her research interests include motivation and engagement in technology enhanced environments, teaching and learning with digital technologies, support for digital learners, digital places, and spaces of learning. Maggie is an executive member of Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand and is an associate editor of the New Zealand based Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning.