Motivational beliefs and perceptions of instructional quality: predicting satisfaction with online training

Many would agree that learning on the Web - a highly autonomous learning environment - may be difficult for individuals who lack motivation and self-regulated learning skills. Using a social cognitive view of academic motivation and self-regulation, the objective of the present study was to investigate the relations between students' motivational beliefs, their perceptions of the learning environment and their satisfaction with a self-paced, online course. Service academy undergraduates (n = 646) completed a questionnaire following online training. Pearson correlations indicate that task value, self-efficacy and perceived instructional quality were significantly positively related to each other and to students' overall satisfaction with the self-paced, online course. Additionally, results from a three-step hierarchical regression reveal that task value, self-efficacy and instructional quality were significant positive predictors of students' satisfaction; the final regression model accounted for approximately 54% of the variance in the outcome measure. These findings support and extend prior research in traditional classrooms and online education in university settings, indicating that military students' motivational beliefs about a learning task and their perceptions of instructional quality are related, in important ways, to their overall satisfaction with online instruction. Educational implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.