THE COMPETENCE OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND FACTORS RELATED TO LEARNING MOTIVATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY IN FINLAND AND AUSTRIA

Abstract

The global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has disturbed daily life and altered the way we interact with others and the urgency of learning motivation/competence and its relation to the pandemic has not been addressed. Thus, few studies have been conducted to assess factors related to learning motivation from the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study aims to examine the related learning motivation of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional was used as secondary data analysis from Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. A total of 7,386 university students in Austria and Finland. The data was administered by a web-based survey that was conducted from April 7 to June 6, 2020. Data analysis comprised of descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. This study found that most of students were female (n = 5,264, 73.30%), students’ age M = 25.76, SD = 7.52, and students from Austria (77.80%) and Finland (22.2%). The predictors of learning motivation were age (β: -0.099, <0.05) and learning competence (β: .659, <0.05). This study also asserted that age (β: -.85, p< .05) was statistically significant with learning competence during COVID-19. Interdisciplinary healthcare team and faculty members consider students’ age, gender, and learning competence factors in developing appropriate activities to encourage learning competence and learning motivation in order to improve learning outcomes in university students during the COVID-19 outbreak