Platform-based academic interaction and self-regulated learning in a WeChat-centered social media environment:...

Social media platforms increasingly support course communication, peer collaboration, and academic information exchange within university learning. In China, these activities are frequently embedded in WeChat-centered communication streams characterized by persistent connectivity, fragmented information sharing, and overlap between academic and personal communication. Drawing on cognitive load theory, control-value theory, and social cognitive theory, this study examined how platform-based academic interaction was associated with self-regulated learning through information overload, perceived control, and information anxiety. Survey data were collected from 846 Chinese university students, of whom 98.5% reported using WeChat for academic purposes and 91.7% identified WeChat as their primary academic communication platform. Structural equation modeling indicated a positive direct association between platform-based academic interaction and self-regulated learning, while the estimated indirect associations involving information overload, perceived control, and information anxiety were negative and larger in absolute magnitude, yielding a negative estimated total association. Higher perceived information literacy was associated with a weaker positive relationship between information overload and information anxiety, whereas higher learning self-efficacy was associated with a weaker negative relationship between information anxiety and self-regulated learning. The information overload to information anxiety association differed across academic stages and was strongest among master's students. These findings identify information-processing demand, regulatory appraisal, and information-related anxiety as distinct processes associated with self-regulated learning in a WeChat-centered social media environment. The cross-sectional self-report design limits temporal and causal inference.