Abstract

Motivating students has been a key challenge facing instructors in non-face-to-face instructional contexts. Existing researches into motivation in online learning environment have revealed that there are learning motivation differences among students from different cultural backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to identify whether American and Chinese online learners’ motivation differ in online learning environment and what characteristics of learners could exert influence on their motivation. This study, based on a survey of 162 students from West Virginia University and 210 students from Fudan University, China, revealed that there was a significant learning motivation difference between American and Chinese online learners. And it was also found that online learners’ learning motivation were affected by such learners’ characteristics as gender, employment status and marital status.

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