University Students and Their Ability to Perform Self-Regulated Online Learning Under the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of the educational system, including students’ learning styles, which are heavily dependent on self-regulated studying strategies and motivation. The purpose of this study was to discover whether Central European students, in this case the Slovak and Czech students, were able to perform self-regulated learning during online learning under the COVID-19 pandemic to achieve their learning goals and improve academic performance, as well as to propose a few practical recommendations how to develop and maintain students’ self-regulation learning in this new online environment. The methodology was based on a questionnaire survey conducted among 268 students at two Central European universities in February and March 2021. The findings indicate that Central European students seemed to be able to perform their online self-study, especially in regard to personal competencies, meaningfulness and motivation. They reported higher awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in learning, time management, and/or the usefulness of making an effort to study. However, the findings reveal an urgent need for more work to be done in the area of metacognitive strategies, such as reflective and critical thinking, analyzing and evaluating. In this respect, the teacher’s role is replaceable since s/he serves as a facilitator and promotes these metacognitive strategies by providing students with constructive feedback, monitoring their learning, reviewing their progress, and/or providing opportunities to reflect on their learning. There were not any striking differences between the Czech and Slovak students. Nevertheless, Slovak students (females in particular) seemed to be more self-disciplined and goal-oriented in their learning.

Self-regulation of learning in the context of modern technology: a review of empirical studies

“…All of the introduced possibilities (online learning environment, style of learning or platforms) that are part of SRL contribute to enhancing students’ academic performance and success. However, despite how modern technologies can help us with SRL, we must not forget about the teachers who act as facilitators and can support students’ metacognitive strategies by monitoring their learning, reviewing their progress, providing opportunities for self-reflection or being able to provide constructive feedback in an online environment (Klimova et al , 2022). Dowden et al (2013) discuss feedback as being at the core of learning.…”

“…The first category consists of four studies that explicitly address self-regulation of learning in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and online education. All but one study addressed students’ readiness for online learning and their SRL strategies and competencies (Naujoks et al , 2021; Li et al , 2019; Klimova et al , 2022). However, Hadwin et al (2022) went further in their investigations and pointed to the influence of self-regulatory practices that promote adaptation to new contexts, tasks and situations, which is associated with mitigating the impact of Covid stressors.…”

“…The third group consists of factors that are part of the learning self-regulation process (Klimova et al , 2022; Reparaz, 2020) and, conversely, those that influence the learning process (Hood et al , 2015; Nuankaew et al , 2019). Some studies focus on one of the self-regulatory aspects within SRL, namely, motivation (Littlejohn, 2016; Li et al , 2019).…”

“…The last group includes studies that explicitly or implicitly address supportive SRL in connection with modern technologies. Anthonysamy et al (2020) deal with it in general terms, whereas Saadati et al (2021) focus on the creation of new tools and Klimova et al (2022) study support from teachers.…”

“…Metacognitive strategies were the ones most weakened during the pandemic. Students exhibit significant challenges in metacognitive strategies, especially in terms of reflective and critical thinking, analysis and evaluation (Klimova et al , 2022). Among the listed strategies that students use to a lesser extent is time management itself, which is associated with personality traits.…”