How E-Learning Environmental Stimuli Influence Determinates of Learning Engagement in the Context of COVID-19? SOR Model Perspective

Front Psychol. 2021 Mar 31:12:584976. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.584976. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 has changed the conventional learning mode for most students at schools all over the world, and the e-learning at home has become a new trend. Taking Chinese college students as the research subject and drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, this paper examines the relationship between the peer referent, perceived closeness, and perceived control and the learning engagement. Using data from 377 college students who have used e-learning, this study shows that perceived closeness, perceived control, and peer referents in e-learning have a positive effect on the self-efficacy and well-being of students, thus improving students' enthusiasm for learning. Our intent is to assist researchers, instructors, designers, and others in identifying effective methods to conceptualize and measure student engagement in e-learning.

Keywords: COVID-19; S-O-R model; e-learning; environmental stimuli; learning engagement.