Factors affecting motivation in online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic: the experiences of students at a Romanian public university

ABSTRACT Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty at higher education institutions across the world quickly converted courses to an online format. With that swift switch, a major challenge experienced by many students has been the loss of motivation, due primarily to the social isolation experienced during the pandemic. This study examined factors that affect student motivation at a Romanian public university. As such, the study contributes to the literature on motivation, by focusing on a context that has rarely been addressed by other studies – universities that began experiencing with online education for the first time during the pandemic. The study highlights commonalities with prior literature by demonstrating that motivation is affected by instructors’ use of effective online instructional practices, perceived course quality, and issues with technology. However, important contextual differences exist between universities with established online programmes and universities that experimented with online learning for the first time during the pandemic. Specifically, instructors at the examined university were more likely than faculty in established online programmes to experience issues with technology and less likely to use effective online teaching practices. Consequently, students’ perceived quality of the online courses was lower.