Examining situational interest and its relationship with self-efficacy in asynchronous and synchronous video lectures

Abstract

Recently, the number of online courses provided for university students around the world has increased substantially. Instruction is delivered most commonly through either asynchronous video lectures (pre-recorded videos with no real-time communication) or synchronous video lectures (live-streamed videos with real-time communication). From a learning perspective, it is important to capture the interest of learners based on specific situational aspects of both asynchronous and synchronous video lectures, and situational interest of learners may vary depending on the overall intrinsic qualities of each modality. Additionally, there may be variations in regards to the way in which self-efficacy interacts with situational interest depending on which modality is used. This study examines survey responses of university students (n = 93) in South Korea to determine if students perceive differences in situational interest between two different conditions: asynchronous video lectures and synchronous video lectures. Additionally, the difference between situational interest levels of learners with low self-efficacy and learners with high self-efficacy within each condition was examined. The main results showed no overall difference in situational interest between the two conditions and no difference in situational interest between learners with low self-efficacy and learners with high self-efficacy in the synchronous video lecture condition. However, there was a significant difference in situational interest found between learners with low self-efficacy and learners with high self-efficacy in the asynchronous video lecture condition. Results are explained through the differing effects of self-efficacy on situational interest based on the amount of autonomy provided in online learning environments.