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Help-seeking matters for online learners who are unconfident
journal contribution
posted on 2023-02-20, 04:36 authored by Jaclyn BroadbentJaclyn Broadbent, WDW HoweOnline help-seeking refers to a learner's willingness to seek help in online learning environments. Counterintuitively, studies of help-seeking have found mixed results for the relationship between help-seeking and academic achievement. We hypothesized that these mixed findings might, in part, be accounted for by the confidence level of the learner. Utilizing a sample of 321 online university students (M = 32.78 years; SD = 9.53), we explored the moderating effect of self-efficacy in the help-seeking–academic achievement relationship. Aligned with the vulnerability hypothesis, when online learners were confident, they engaged in help-seeking more often than learners with low confidence. Importantly, however, when online learners were unconfident, we found that help-seeking behaviors were positively associated with academic success. Confident learners did not appear to gain any academic performance benefit from using help-seeking strategies. Our study highlights help-seeking's potential importance in improving academic success for our least confident learners, with no impact on confident learners.
History
Journal
Distance EducationVolume
44Location
London, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
0158-7919eISSN
1475-0198Language
EnglishPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalIssue
1Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTDUsage metrics
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Keywords
Social SciencesEducation & Educational Researchself-efficacyhelp-seekingacademic achievementself-regulated learningonline learningACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACYACHIEVEMENTPERFORMANCEMOTIVATIONPROFILESBEHAVIORCLASSROOMSTRATEGYSTUDENTBELIEFSSpecialist Studies in Education not elsewhere classifiedEducation systems not elsewhere classified
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