BOREDOM AND ONLINE LEARNING MOTIVATED ATTENTION AND REGULATION STRATEGIES DURING COVID-19

Abstract

"During online classes, teachers face the challenges of keeping the students focused and motivated in the online environment. The results of the research showed that students who get bored during online classes are less motivated and achieve poorer academic results. The initial assumption that this paper makes is that in relation to the level of boredom that students experience during online lessons, it is possible to predict which strategies of attention regulation and direction students will use. The research sample consists of 198 students, between 18 and 39 years of age (AM = 21.03; SD = 2.43), 84.9% of which are female. The sample included survey participants who stated that class attendance was mandatory during online classes due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The instruments used were the Online Learning Motivated Attention and Regulation Strategies (OLMARS) questionnaire, dimension of Boredom from the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire - Short version (AEQ-S). The results of simple regression analysis showed that boredom during online lessons is a predictor for four statistically significant strategies of attention regulation and direction: Perceived attention discontinuity (R2=.21; F(1,196)=53,442; p=.000 ??=.463; p=.000), Lingering thought (R2=.16; F(1,196)=39,350; p=.000 ??=.409; p=.000) and Social media notification (R2=.17; F(1,196)=40,975; p=.000 ??=.416; p=.000) Behavioral strategies (R2=.05; F(1,196)=12,574; p=.000 ??=-.246; p=.000). The results indicate that when boredom happens, students reach for various digital distractors to which they direct their attention to. We can see that the highest percentage of variance is explained by strategies aimed at drawing attention to stimuli from the environment. Moreover, it should be kept in mind that the research was conducted under specific circumstances, at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, although the results obtained were in line with the findings of other researchers according to whom attention deficit is caused by the presence of negative emotions during lessons. Given the tendency to continue with online education, these results can be useful for understanding the needs of students who attend classes on online platforms."