For Step 1 I have chosen: The Psychology of Remote Learning: Does studying in isolation impact motivation and cognitive development?

I have created my Notion as a resource to help me stay on track with my personalized learning plan. Notion can help me with my plans on creating a survey for step 2.

This week my goals were step 2 and 3.

Step 2:

I started with defining motivation, exploring and understanding concepts like intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. One of the main questions that I started with was:

What psychological theories explain motivation in remote learning? 

For this question I have decided to research Self Determination Theory and Cognitive Load Theory.

I will also be creating a survey (on Notion) to send to family and friends to gather some evidence on how remote learning can affect motivation from real life examples. My survey will be 10 questions that can help me learn more on how remote learning affects people individually and compare answers. I have started brainstorming for the survey and will ask questions like:

  1. How connected do you feel to your peers or teacher during remote lessons or in remote environments?
  2. Do you feel confident in your ability to learn and complete homework/projects online?
  3. How often do you feel mentally overwhelmed or over worked during online learning lessons?

Step 3:

My focus is more on refining my inquiry questions and narrowing my topic to make it more meaningful. For step 2 my inquiry started broadly but I realized I needed to focus a bit more on the motivation aspect of remote learning and what psychological factors influence this. In this stage, I have reviewed some of the notes I’ve made on different theories and the meaning of motivation to start and will be using the two main theories I mentioned above as a guide. These frameworks can help me see how motivation and learning are interconnected processes.

Based on this understanding, I created a list of more targeted questions to answer in step 4, including:

  • Is there any case studies or “proof” on the effects (cognitively) of learning in isolation compared to in person/ collaborative settings?
  • What age groups are affected the most?
  • Are there any differences in how isolated learning affects students with different subjects?
  • How does socio or economic differences affect students motivation in remote learning?
  • Which open learning tools are commonly used to support motivation and learning in remote educational settings?
  • How can certain design features of online platforms worsen isolation effects? (zoom breakout rooms, discussions forums, etc)

I’m using google scholar to find articles related to these topics and to help me answer the questions above. I am documenting my findings and notes on Notion.