Examining Merits and Demerits of Master's Virtual Programs of English from Students’ Perspectives in light of ‎Motivation and Self-Efficacy

Introduction: Due to the current situation (coronavirus pandemic) as well as time and place ‎restrictions, the replacement of traditional classes with online courses is prevailing, and ‎instructors and learners rarely attend in a classroom. Thus, an unexpected immersion in virtual ‎learning revealed the advantages and disadvantages of virtual education. The present study ‎aimed to explore the merits and the demerits of the virtual master’s program of the English department ‎of universities regarding students' perspectives on motivation and self-efficacy. Methodology: The researchers developed and validated an instrument ‎that measured online students' self-efficacy and motivation toward the virtual programs. Relying on the semi-structured interviews and open-ended ‎questions, the researchers developed a 21-item scale on a 5-point Likert scale. The designed scale distributed among 151 students from four universities in ‎Mashhad, Iran. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis as well as correlational analysis were performed to answer the research questions. The SEM model was used to explore the interrelationships among attitudes toward virtual ‎programs, self-efficacy, and motivation Results: The obtained results indicate an acceptable level of reliability for the scale (0.82). The findings indicated that the independent variable of the virtual program of the ‎university positively had a direct relationship with the dependent variables of the study, which were motivation ‎and self-efficacy. Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that virtual education still needs new expertise and more developed skills from educational designers and programmers to students and instructors.