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Investigating the Importance of Student Location and Time Spent Online in Academic Performance and Self-regulation

Abstract:

The advent of a potential pandemic worldwide alerted educational institutions to take preventive measures in order to implement the best strategy. This investigation reports on a pilot study that intended to establish the benefits of transitioning to either an online or a blended-learning modes. To this end, we firstly analysed academic performance and time spent on a set of online activities completed by language learners at beginner and upper-intermediate levels. Secondly, student location was also examined, and it was found that it has a strong relationship with academic performance based on the average grades. Statistical analyses of variance and regression models were carried out, to analyse the importance of the factors in the outcome variable. In addition, a test was done to compare performance between the study groups. Based on student location in combination with the other variables, it was possible to monitor that the students performed academically better when off-campus. This led us to the preliminary conclusion that moving to a fully online or blended-learning mode, either due to the pandemic or an independent decision, students would perform equally, if not better, than when on-campus.