Teaching approach and student performance in e-learning

Despite the various benefits generated from online teaching/learning, this approach always produces a high drop rate and a low passing rate resulting from some students' lack of discipline, motivation, and guidance in an isolated learning environment. A crucial responsibility of an online instructor is to increase students' learning engagements and their academic performances via a teaching motivation strategy and its implementation approach. This study examines and assesses impacts on students' learning performances from one motivation strategy and two implementation approaches: teacher-motivated and teacher-guided. The substance of the motivation strategy is based on the ARCS motivation model and implementation approaches utilise two motivation principles of self-determination theory. Findings suggest that the implementation approach is just as important as the motivation strategy for improving students' learning. The teacher-guided approach with active and constant virtual communication between instructor and students significantly increases students' learning efforts and academic performances.