Embedding a Digital Self-Regulated Learning Training Intervention in a First-Year University Business Class

• In Event: Designing Effective Digital Programs to Help Students Develop and Deploy Self-Regulated Learning Skills

Abstract

Objectives/Purpose. When students are self-regulated in their learning, they enjoy better learning, engage in more generative learning processes, achieve superior performance outcomes, and report higher motivation and confidence in the development of life-long learning skills (Boekaerts, 1999; Dent & Koenka, 2016; Paris & Paris, 2001). Self-regulated learning (SRL) training programs can help students become better learners (Theobald, 2021, Jansen et al., 2019), but in-person programs can be resource-intensive and difficult to scale. Digital training programs provide a promising avenue for helping more students become self-regulated at scale, but typically, digital interventions are less effective than in-person ones (Broadbent & Poon, 2015) and more research is needed to understand how we can develop strong digital interventions that deliver practically significant benefits to learners.

Perspectives/Theoretical Framework. Self-regulated learning can be defined as “an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment” (Pintrich, 2000, p. 453). Our study and training intervention was based on Zimmerman’s (2008) three-phase model of self-regulated learning and focuses learners on activities that can improve their forethought, performance, and self-reflection during academic tasks in a business course.

Methods and Data Sources. We developed a 1-hour digital science of learning to learn training program consisting of three e-learning sessions that required around 20 minutes to complete and were distributed across ten weeks of the semester. The intervention was embedded in an undergraduate business class for first-year students at a large university. A similar-looking training program containing interviews with business professionals was also developed and constituted the activity for the control group, who learned skills related to course content, but that should not affect their learning process. The two training programs were implemented as a mandatory activity that students had to complete in order to qualify for taking the final exam. Students (N=155) were randomly assigned to one of the two training programs.

Results. Analysis of participants’ variables showed no significant differences between the participants in the treatment and control group at the beginning of the intervention (See Table 2). Next, we found no effect from the intervention on achievement in the course as measured by the end-of-semester, full-letter-graded written exam, nor on self-regulated learning activity as measured by a pre- and post-survey (Table 2). Fidelity measures revealed that some students rushed through the digital training program, but leaving these students out of the sample did not alter the findings. Students generally reported finding both training programs useful and motivating.

Significance. This project shows that SRL training courses can be embedded into courses and be well-received by students, but also that such feedback does not correlate to impact on targeted learning outcomes. We highlight some of the challenges and possible pitfalls when designing digital SRL interventions that align to prior promising methods and applying them in new settings.

Author

• Olav Schewe, University of Oxford
  Presenting Author