The Impact of Web-Based Learning on Students Achievement and Motivation

The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic necessitated education institutions to strategize and find new means to help students continue learning over a distance. This was the beginning of implementing e-learning systems and programs in different learning institutions as a strategy to cope with unprecedented times even in the future. Today, web learning has created new possibilities integrated into instructional materials and delivered over a long distance. Online learning promotes learning by encouraging students to take control of their education, increasing their commitment to studying. According to Abou et al. (2014), the virtual world represents new possibilities for enriching the learning environment because students can access information anytime. Online learning has proven beyond doubt its ability to boost learners’ motivation and collaboration, leading to improved academic performance. Learning through technology promotes student engagement by encouraging students to take control of their learning and increasing their commitment to studying. This can be proven by analyzing a study conducted by Abou et al. (2014) on the effects of synchronous chats in an online course. The findings of this research indicated that assigning roles to students increases the proportion of student-to-student interaction, which helps facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, ideas, and facts. Students become more committed to their education and, therefore, show more capabilities to make informed decisions about their learning. Through online learning, students tend to be more motivated to learn because of the collaborative nature that comes with it, hence improving student performance. Therefore, this research paper aims to examine how web learning motivates students to learn, improves learners’ collaborative efforts and creativity, and improves performance.

Online learning boosts learners’ motivation, collaboration, and better performance. Essentially, e-learning is a significant factor that motivates students to learn as it stimulates collaborative efforts that help boost academic performance even in students with learning problems. Today, learners have access to a variety of information online, and therefore, they have the free will to choose from various sources of information. Traditional learning is becoming less effective because students believe that through building on engagement, one can understand areas that they initially needed help to comprehend. Today, more than 90% of learners globally use the Internet as a source of information (Wang &Wu, 2018). As a result, the role of the teacher has changed, becoming a facilitator or guide to students. Teachers encourage students to find information online, brainstorm, and formulate opinions about the message. The key aspects of learning through a collaborative online environment include e-discussions, e-assessments, and e-grade checking and feedback (Abou et al., 2014). The more students engage in learning through modern technologies, the more they tend to be motivated to learn. They make personal decisions about their learning, showing high levels of motivation and improved performance.

Moreover, online discussions stimulate the ability of learners to engage in interactive assignments, which helps in sharing opinions through online discussions hence higher retention rates, especially in underperforming students. According to Wang &Wu (2018), online classes can better engage all learners, including those experiencing learning difficulties, improving their retention rates by approximately 60%. This is because online courses increase student collaboration to solve problems, and those with learning problems benefit from such an environment compared to traditional learning. Because there is no one to judge the opinions of varied types of learners, web learning offers a flexible learning environment that allows students to share their ideas freely, grasping and understanding concepts easily (Al-Hattami, 2020). Additionally, because it is self-regulated learning, it helps to facilitate continuity of education even when students cannot interact physically with their peers and teachers (Wang & Wu, 2018). Therefore, for most students, the fascinating experience of being part of online learning is the room to engage others without the fear of being judged, as it was in most traditional classroom settings. Here, students can build on social relationships that facilitate communication and the transfer of ideas, increasing their ability to perform better and proceed to the next level of learning. For example, Wang &Wu (2018) investigated the integration of the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) Model in online learning and how this boosts the motivation of underperforming students. They found that, unlike traditional settings, online learning has helped facilitate curiosity. Notably, the confidence component encourages students, especially those with learning difficulties, to express themselves freely and share their thoughts without fear. These learners come out of these online sessions more inspired because they can grasp more information through online interactions. Therefore, this approach proved that web learning builds on satisfaction by reinforcing accomplishments using internal and external rewards. However, it is equally important to emphasize that while technology can help boost retention rates, it cannot fix the issue of literacy alone (Tsai et al., 2020). The usefulness of educational technology lies in the instructor’s ability to incorporate technologies and meet the needs of all students.

It is equally important to emphasize that through web-based learning, learners are free to share information, thereby increasing their creativity rate of sharing ideas. Students can easily help each other through learning online, encouraging others to perform well. This learning also involves the free sharing of thoughts, ideas, and opinions in a free manner (Yeh & Lin, 2015). Creativity is considered one of the most important skills in formal education that students require to navigate the job market in the future. According to Yeh & Lin (2015), unlike traditional education, which was purely based on knowledge acquisition, today, any education that does not accommodate creativity renders students useless in the competitive job market. Moreover, studies have shown that creativity is not only an outcome of learning today but a skill that helps to differentiate variables that should be accounted for in a deliberate instructional design (Barber, 2020). Communication technologies have become a common place where learners acquire creative skills because the environment accommodates the pedagogical role in understanding individual differences. Additionally, these sites support the student creativity levels by incorporating open-ended tasks involving choice, authenticity, and relevancy through a risk-taking atmosphere of care, tolerance, and respect (Yeh & Lin, 2015). Today visuals and vision have become an integral part of facilitating cognitive processing. For example, using diagrams to create relationships and elements of arrows, lines, and colors helps students retain more knowledge and acquire additional skills relevant to spearheading their learning to the next level.

Conclusion

In summary, web learning has been crucial in shaping the education sector today. Since its introduction, students’ rate of motivation to learn has improved due to the collaborative nature that comes with learning through technology. Among the key factors central to collaborative learning in the education setting today is learning through technology. Essentially, e-learning stimulates student collaborative efforts that help in boosting academic performance, including in students with learning problems. Today, learners can access a variety of information, and therefore, they have the free will to choose from various sources of information. Students can access information in the comfort of their homes or anywhere far from school, and this helps improve performance. Based on the ARCS Model in online learning, the integration of the four components of ARCS into web learning boosts the motivation of underperforming students. Also, unlike traditional settings, online learning has helped facilitate curiosity, which is the basic foundation of learning. In addition, the component of confidence of the ARCS Model encourages students, especially those with learning difficulties, to express themselves freely and share their thoughts without fear. Through online sessions, learners are more inspired because they can grasp more information through online interactions. Additionally, through web learning, students can engage and share information, boosting each other’s level of grasping knowledge (Wang & Wu, 2018). Another important feature of online learning is creativity which is considered one of the most important skills in formal education that students require to navigate the job market in the future. However, despite the growing need to incorporate technology in the learning environment, its implementation has only happened in some educational settings, leaving some students better placed to compete academically at the expense of others. Therefore, there is a need to formulate policies that will look at how technologies incorporated meet the needs of all students. In this regard, future research can delve into investigating technology coverage rates in education globally. Also, future research can focus on strategies that stakeholders can implement to ensure students use online platforms for their rightful purposes only.

References

Abou El-Seoud, M. S., Taj-Eddin, I. A., Seddiek, N., El-Khouly, M. M., & Nosseir, A. (2014). E-learning and students’ motivation: A research study on the effect of e-learning on higher education. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (Online), 9(4), 20.

Al-Hattami, A. A. (2020). E-Assessment of students’ performance during the E-Teaching and learning. International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, 29(8), 1537-1547.

Barber, W. (2020). Building creative, critical online learning communities through digital moments. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 18(5), 387–396.

Tsai, M. C., Shen, P. D., Chen, W. Y., Hsu, L. C., & Tsai, C. W. (2020). Exploring the effects of web-mediated activity-based learning and meaningful learning on improving students’ learning effects, learning engagement, and academic motivation. Universal Access in the Information Society, 19, 783-798.

Wang, S. L., & Wu, P. Y. (2018). The role of feedback and self-efficacy on web-based learning: The social cognitive perspective. Computers & Education, 51(4), 1589-1598

Yeh, Y. C., & Lin, C. F. (2015). Aptitude-treatment interactions during creativity training in e-learning: How meaning-making, self-regulation, and knowledge management influence creativity. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(1), 119–131.

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