Are Our Measures Off-Line? Critiquing Measures of Motivation in Online Courses

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: Assessment, Feedback, and Learning Technologies Poster Session

Abstract

When investigating disparities between online and face-to-face courses, sense of belonging stands out as an understudied source of motivation. Although instruments established to measure school belonging are adapted to classroom contexts, little work addresses whether students conceptualize belonging differently between contexts. This mixed-method study illustrates that students describe belonging similarly across contexts, but the experiences that promote classroom belonging are much more heavily driven by instructors. Cognitive interviews revealed that several measures of school belonging mostly capture noise when adapted to the college classroom. Finally, quantitative results mostly reflect qualitative reports, but belie the important role that anonymity plays in fostering belonging in online classes. Implications for theory and measurement of belonging in online contexts is discussed.

Authors

• Peter McPartlan, University of California - Irvine

• Teomara Rutherford, University of Delaware