A Preliminary Exploration of the Effects of Personality and Self-Efficacy for Online Learning in Higher Education
Abstract: Colleges and universities, over the past two decades, have increasingly turned to parallel online or blended delivery offerings to augment traditional face-to-face courses and programs. This research study examines the personality types of students attracted to these courses, the role of the student's self-efficacy in their success, and specifically the role of the student's self-efficacy in learning online on their academic achievement. There were several key findings in the preliminary analysis presented in this paper. First, the demographics of the students who chose to take these courses over a two-year period tended to be female (68.8%) and / or identified English as an additional language (65.4%). Second, conscientiousness as a personality trait and self-efficacy for online learning were found to be significant correlates with academic achievement among this population. Additional analysis is needed to examine the specific role conscientiousness and self-efficacy for online learning play in academic achievement.
Presider: Ting Bi, Dublin City University