MOTIVATION FOR TRADITIONAL STUDY AND E-LEARNING OF DESIRED AND UNDESIRED SPECIALTIES
MOTIVATION FOR TRADITIONAL STUDY AND E-LEARNING OF DESIRED AND UNDESIRED SPECIALTIES

Summary/Abstract: Objectives. It is important to establish if motivation for studying a desired specialty is more long-lasting, stimulating e-learning and job-related performance than motivation for studying an undesired specialty. It may be expected that studying the desired specialty would be related to greater motivation for acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills using diverse sources of information, including online learning, in order to correspond to the job requirements. Material and methods. A survey was conducted in 2017 among 156 Bulgarian students who were asked about their behaviour, feelings and intents related to learning their specialty based on some items from two self-report questionnaires measuring academic motivation and adaptation to university environment. Results. Less proportion of students who wanted to study their specialty before being enrolled at the university preferred to change the specialty (p < .001), were not satisfied with their exam results (p < .05), thought of giving up their studies (p < .01), felt unpleasant when they learned (p < .05), and did not regularly search for additional material on the Internet (p < .001) than the students who did not want to study their specialty before being enrolled at the university. Conclusions. Studying the desired specialty was related to greater motivation for acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills using diverse sources of information, including online learning. E-learning may complement traditional learning related to a chosen vocational field.

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