The Effect of Online Self-Directed Training on Improving Academic Performance and Academic Vitality of Students

Students represent a society’s most valuable human capital, as societal success hinges on their academic performance. The academic performance serves as a key metric for assessing the efficacy of an educational system, with academic vitality playing a pivotal role in addressing educational challenges. Academic vitality, by fostering educational creativity, can enhance academic performance. Self-directed learning, predicated on the learner’s selforganization in terms of metacognitive beliefs, motivational beliefs, and learning behaviors, has gained prominence in today’s rapidly changing, technology-driven world. Despite previous research highlighting the importance of self-directed learning in education, questions remain about the impact of online self-directed learning on students’ academic performance and vitality. Online education presents an opportunity to address societal crises through widespread implementation in educational systems. Therefore, it is imperative to identify its effects and employ effective educational methodologies. Research Questions or Hypothesis 1. Online self-directed training has a significant effect on students' academic performance. 2. Online self-directed training has a significant effect on students' academic vitality.

The present research method was experimental with a pre-test - posttest design with a control group. The research population included second-grade high school female students in Sari city during the academic year 2022-2023. The research sample size was 34 students (17 in each group) who were selected by accessible sampling method and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The research tools were the academic performance questionnaire by Fam and Taylor (1999), the academic vitality questionnaire by Dehghani-Zadeh and Hosseinchari, and the self-regulated learning training based on the protocol presented by Jafari and colleagues (2022). It should be noted that this intervention was carried out virtually on the Shad network outside the curriculum in 16 sessions over 2.5 months. There were two sessions per week, and each session lasted a maximum of 35 minutes.

To investigate the existing differences, the results of the univariate and multivariate covariance analysis on the dependent variables have been presented. The obtained results showed that there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of at least one of the sub-scales of students’ academic performance. Furthermore, self-regulated learning training can lead to improvement and increase in academic vitality in the experimental group.

It can be argued that providing training on time management, homework tasks, goal setting, and teaching resources, which are sub-scales of academic performance, has influenced the formation of a positive concept of oneself as an efficient learner and has improved academic performance. Regarding the sub-scale of emotional effects, it can be mentioned that desirable academic performance requires the perception of positive emotions and the absence of self-doubt and unworthiness, which is rooted in the feeling of inability or lack of skill in managing these emotions. One of the influential results of the present study in curriculum studies is that self-directed training, which leads to an increase in self-control and self-management, could potentially accompany emotional control and management for the student. Also, regarding the effectiveness of the self-directed educational intervention on the motivation sub-scale, it can be said that the root of improving academic performance goes back to incentives such as academic advancement, having a suitable social position, success in society, and peace of mind, which can be pursued through curricula. In this regard, the presented intervention somewhat tried to discuss the sources of motivation, especially intrinsic motivation, and to converse with the students to activate it. In addition to this, focus was placed on teachings such as academic arousal and enjoyment of learning. In this regard, new studies indicate that the use of educational techniques such as games and interactive learning, which are accompanied by the enjoyment of learning, can improve the motivation related to educational performance. Considering that the presented intervention took place in a limited time and its results were examined, it may not have been able to reveal the long-term effects of the intervention. In explaining the effectiveness of the online self-directed learning method, it can be said that the self-directed learning processes of students using internet communication technology help collaborative learning. Based on the results, it is suggested that self-direction in virtual learning be taught to students. It is also suggested that self-directed education be included in the topics of educational courses and inservice training of teachers so that they can master it and provide the context for teaching it to students.