Abstract

Background: This study aimed to elucidate self-motivation for distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic through comparisons of motivation-initiating strategies in face-to-face learning before the pandemic and to get suggestions for providing educational support for students.
Methods: The study recruited 163 first-year undergraduate nursing education students in Japan. A lecture on the theme of the health assessment of genetic information was conducted in the target class, and the survey was conducted from December 2019 (face-to-face learning; n = 82) to December 2020 (distance learning; n = 81). Motivation-initiating strategies scale 5 strategies; self-reward [SR], valuation [VA], desire elimination [DE], relationship [RE], punishment recall [PR], 20 items were investigated; data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (significance level: 1%).
Results: A total of 101 students participated. In the comparison between the distance and the face-to-face learning (n = 62, and n = 39, respectively), the RE strategy scored significantly lower in the former group for all items. DE and PR strategies were significantly lower for distance learning for the majority of items except one. Moreover, the correlation between the VA and PR strategies differed between the two groups. Specifically, face-to-face learning evinced the correlation of “Image to avoid becoming inferior” (PR3) to “Think for myself” (VA1), “Think for the goal” (VA2), and “Think about why I do something” (VA4). However, no positive correlation was found between these items for distance learning.
Conclusion: Distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic involves several challenges, such as receiving inspiration from others and incorporating learning into daily life. With regard to nursing education, during the pandemic, it was found that it is desirable for students to have opportunities for active collaboration and be given clear learning goals and processes.