The relationship between university students' motivation and their learning environment is the focus of this article. Following self-determination theory (SOT) and the theory of interest, it is proposed that perceived support of basic psychological needs (support of autonomy, competence and social relatedness), as well as aspects of a constructivist learning environment (teachers' interest, relevance of contents, and quality of instruction, as well as transparency and fit of requirements) are associated with self-determined motivation and with study interest. The responses of a sample of undergraduate students in psychology (N =123) to measures of these variables were analysed. The students were asked about their motivation to learn, their interest in psychology and about the perceived learning environment in psychology. The results showed that most of the students were motivated on an intrinsic and identified level, and displayed high study interest. Study interest, intrinsic motivation and self-determined forms of extrinsic motivation were particularly associated with perceived support of autonomy and competence, as well as with the relevance of the contents, the quality of instruction and with the perceived transparency of requirements. • To whom correspondence should be addressed We need to create cohesive societies, and one of the best ways to do that is to have educational systems that increase such cohesion (Triandis, 2001, p.1) Recent educational-psychological research has repeatedly highlighted the qualitative differences between intrinsically motivated and interested learners and extrinsically motivated learners regarding the learning process, as well as learning results. The

During the COVID-19 shutdown phase in Germany, universities stopped presence teaching and students had to turn to digital instruction. To examine their capability to cope with the changed learning situation, we assessed how basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration, motivational regulation, vitality, and self-efficacy of 228 German biology-teaching students (75% female) relate to their chronotype and personality (Big Five). Specifically, we were interested in possible effects of chronotype and personality dimensions on variables related to successful remote learning. Since the pandemic and remote learning will accompany teaching and learning at university in 2021, predictors of successful remote learning need to be identified to support student learning optimally in digital learning environments. In our study, morning-oriented, conscientious, and open students with low neuroticism seem to better cope with the shutdown environment due to vitality, self-efficacy, and partly their self-determined motivation. Moreover, our findings implicate students might need different support depending on their chronotype and personality during the digital learning phase.

During the pandemic restrictions imposed in spring 2020, many aspects of students’ living and learning environments changed drastically. From the perspective of Self-Determination Theory, changes in social context interact with the satisfaction or frustration of basic psychological needs and, as a result, with study-related motivational regulation and vitality. In this study, we investigate the relationships between the contextual factors of online-based distance learning, basic psychological needs, forms of motivational regulation and subjective vitality in a sample of N = 1849 university students across eight universities in Austria and Germany. Based on structural equational modelling, the results stress the relevance of satisfaction with technological resources in regard to higher levels of satisfaction in all three basic psychological needs, while perceived overload is linked to lower levels of needs satisfaction and increased basic psychological needs frustration. Further, the estimated workload difference before and during the pandemic is not related to the motivational outcomes of the model. All relationships have been tested for mediation effects between basic psychological needs and the different forms of motivational regulation on subjective vitality: for the need for relatedness, no mediation is found, while the effect of the need for autonomy is fully mediated by autonomous regulation styles. The need for competence was associated with several mediating interactions with regulation styles. The results offer insight into students’ perceptions of their study-related experiences during the pandemic and can help to develop effective methods in online-based and blended learning settings in the future.

Self-determination theory assumes that the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are associated with motivational regulation. As these basic psychological needs may have been affected by the shift to distance learning, students’ motivational regulation and vitality may have suffered as well. The purpose of this study was to examine the motivational regulation, satisfaction, or frustration of the basic psychological needs and vitality of university students before and after the transition to forced distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Two student samples from Austria and Germany were studied: One was surveyed before the conversion to distance learning (N=1,139) and the other at the beginning of forced distance learning (N=1,835). The instruments used were the Scales for the Measurement of Motivational Regulation for Learning in University Students (SMR-L), the German version of the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale, a scale developed by the authors to differentiate the assessment of social relatedness, and the German version of the Subjective Vitality Scale. The results show that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs was significantly lower and the frustration thereof substantially higher during the distance learning period than before the pandemic. Intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were significantly lower during the forced distance learning period, and more controlled forms of motivation were higher than before the pandemic. Structural equation models showed that 42% of the students’ vitality can be explained by motivational regulation and the satisfaction and frustration of their basic needs. Motivational regulation styles functioned (differentiated according to the degree of autonomy) as mediating variables between basic needs and vitality. In terms of theoretical implications, the distinction between approach and avoidance components of introjected regulation was shown to be adequate and necessary, as they explain the outcome vitality differently. The support and avoidance of frustration of basic psychological needs should be considered in distance learning to promote the quality of motivation and students’ vitality.

Zusammenfassung. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden Skalen zur motivationalen Regulation beim Lernen im Studium (SMR-LS) vorgestellt, welche 4 Regulationsstile (intrinsisch, identifiziert, introjiziert, external) im Sinne der Selbstbestimmungstheorie der Motivation nach Deci und Ryan (1985) messen. In Studie 1 wurden die Faktorenstruktur der Items untersucht und erste Hinweise auf die valide Interpretierbarkeit der 4 Skalenwerte gewonnen. In Studie 2 konnte die Faktorenstruktur kreuzvalidiert werden. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die postulierte Faktorenstruktur gut begründet ist und die SMR-LS akzeptable interne Konsistenzen aufweisen (α ≥ .73). Darüber hinaus konnte die Annahme von Messinvarianz der Regulationsstile für die Faktoren Studienfach, Geschlecht und Land untermauert werden. Die Korrelationen der SMR-LS mit Lebenszufriedenheit, positivem und negativem Affekt, Prokrastination, wahrgenommener Autonomieunterstützung und Leistung waren theoriekonform und liefern weitere Hinweise auf eine valide Interpretierbarkeit der Skalenwerte der SMR-LS in der Erforschung von Bedingungsfaktoren und von Folgen motivationaler Regulation.