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An Online Experiment During COVID-19: Testing the Influences of Autonomy Support Toward Emotions and Academic
Yurou Wang1, Jihong Zhang2, Halim Lee1
1Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, United States.
Abstract:
Students' academic persistence is a critical component of effective online learning. Promoting students' academic persistence could potentially alleviate learning loss or drop-out, especially during challenging time like the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research indicated that different emotions and autonomy support could all influence students' academic persistence. However, few studies examined the multidimensionality of persistence using an experimental design with students' real-time emotions. Using an experimental design and the Contain Intelligent Facial Expression Recognition System (CIFERS), this research explored the dynamic associations among real-time emotions (joy and anxiety), autonomy support (having choice and no choice), self-perceived persistence, self-reliance persistence, and help-seeking persistence. 177 college students participated in this study online via Zoom during COVID-19 university closure. The results revealed that having choice and high intensity of joy could promote students' self-reliance persistence, but not help-seeking persistence. Interestingly, students who perceived themselves as more persistent experienced more joy during experiment. The theoretical and practical implications on facilitating students' academic persistence were discussed.
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