{"title":"Help-seeking matters for online learners who are unconfident","authors":"J. Broadbent, Wren D. W. Howe","doi":"10.1080/01587919.2022.2155616","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Online help-seeking refers to a learner's willingness to seek help in online learning environments. Counterintuitively, studies of help-seeking have found mixed results for the relationship between help-seeking and academic achievement. We hypothesized that these mixed findings might, in part, be accounted for by the confidence level of the learner. Utilizing a sample of 321 online university students (M = 32.78 years; SD = 9.53), we explored the moderating effect of self-efficacy in the help-seeking–academic achievement relationship. Aligned with the vulnerability hypothesis, when online learners were confident, they engaged in help-seeking more often than learners with low confidence. Importantly, however, when online learners were unconfident, we found that help-seeking behaviors were positively associated with academic success. Confident learners did not appear to gain any academic performance benefit from using help-seeking strategies. Our study highlights help-seeking's potential importance in improving academic success for our least confident learners, with no impact on confident learners.","PeriodicalId":51514,"journal":{"name":"Distance Education","volume":"44 1","pages":"106 - 119"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Distance Education","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2022.2155616","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Abstract Online help-seeking refers to a learner's willingness to seek help in online learning environments. Counterintuitively, studies of help-seeking have found mixed results for the relationship between help-seeking and academic achievement. We hypothesized that these mixed findings might, in part, be accounted for by the confidence level of the learner. Utilizing a sample of 321 online university students (M = 32.78 years; SD = 9.53), we explored the moderating effect of self-efficacy in the help-seeking–academic achievement relationship. Aligned with the vulnerability hypothesis, when online learners were confident, they engaged in help-seeking more often than learners with low confidence. Importantly, however, when online learners were unconfident, we found that help-seeking behaviors were positively associated with academic success. Confident learners did not appear to gain any academic performance benefit from using help-seeking strategies. Our study highlights help-seeking's potential importance in improving academic success for our least confident learners, with no impact on confident learners.
期刊介绍:
Distance Education, a peer-reviewed journal affiliated with the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, Inc., is dedicated to publishing research and scholarly content in the realm of open, distance, and flexible education. Focusing on the freedom of learners from constraints in time, pace, and place of study, the journal has been a pioneering source in these educational domains. It continues to contribute original and scholarly work, playing a crucial role in advancing knowledge and practice in open and distance learning.