Relationship between Individual Values and Involvement in Online Learning: The Role of Social Capital

Abstract

In 2019 the federal project “Digital Educational Environment” aimed at creating and implementing a digital educational environment in educational organizations was launched. The COVID-19 pandemic foregrounded this project and accelerated its implementation. The forced digital transformation of the education system, implemented in a short time, requires an assessment of its results not only from a technical point of view, but also from the point of view of socio-psychological factors that affect the quality of students' involvement in the digital educational environment. This paper provides the empirical results of an investigation of a relationship of higher-order values and social capital with involvement in online learning. The study’s sample is presented by 405 students at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”. The main data collection method is a socio-psychological survey which includes Williams` social capital scale, Schwartz’s 21-item portrait values questionnaire, Involvement in online learning’s scale, and questions about socio-demographic characteristics (gender and age). The results of the Pearson correlation analysis illustrate that involvement in online learning relates to social capital and higher-order values, while its relation to age and gender was not found. The results of additive multiple moderation analysis demonstrates that higher-order values contribute to involvement in online learning and social capital tends to change the nature of this relationship. While bonding social capital differentiates the values of involvement in online learning related to higher-order values, based on one's own level, a higher bridging social capital inclines to make this relationship negative in some cases.