University students, who are assumed to be digital natives, are exposed to campus e-learning environments to improve their academic performance at the beginning of their academic careers. However, previous studies of students' perceptions of elearning demonstrate a lack of consistent results with respect to the prediction of their academic achievement. The goal of this study was to examine university students' perceptions of e-learning, based on their experiences, and the mediating roles of academic engagement and digital readiness within the university context of an e-learning environment for academic achievement. A total of 614 undergraduate students enrolled in a Korean university participated in this study. Using a partial least squares model to develop the theory, we examined students engaging in university e-learning environments in relation to their perceptions of e-learning, digital readiness, academic engagement, and academic achievement (i.e., grade point average). The results are significant for the importance of students' academic engagement and digital readiness as mediators in their perceptions of e-learning predicted by academic achievement. Although students positively perceived elearning experiences on campus, they must have strong digital skills to perform academic work and commit to effortful involvement in the context of academic learning in university e-learning environments. Our results provide practical implications for ways to enhance effective adoption of e-learning environments by college students, educators, and administrators.

College students are often assumed to be digitally fluent as they are “digital natives”, owing to their exposure to digital technologies from an early age. Furthermore, it is assumed that this digital competence is likely to prepare them for learning in college. However, it has been observed that current college students who are “digital natives” may or may not effectively apply digital technologies during their college education. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of college students’ prior digital experiences, particularly their families’ influence, on their in-college digital competence and attitude, and by extension, on student engagement. A total of 381 university students were surveyed in this study. Data was obtained from a self-administered, online survey and analyzed using partial least squares, which also evaluated the research model. According to the findings of this study, students’ positive prior digital experience significantly influences their perceived digital competence and their attitude toward digital technologies. In addition, our research also indicates that college students’ perceived digital competence and attitudes are mediated by their learning agility, which is the ability to continuously learn and the willingness to apply acquired knowledge. This article may thus act as a springboard for further empirical research, as well as for examining the nature of students’ prior and positive experiences and learning agility in digital competencies.

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Usability is critical to the development of a user-friendly digital textbook platform interface, yet thorough research on interface development based on usability principles is in short supply. This study addresses that need by looking at usability attributes and corresponding design elements from a learning perspective. The researchers used a student survey, log files, and an expert heuristic evaluation to analyze needs for revision in the user interface of the existing Korea Education Research Information Service digital textbook platform. After using suggestions derived from this analysis to develop a new platform prototype, they tested its user interface for usability through a cognitive walkthrough and a formative evaluation. The results show that the usability design elements identified through the use of this iterative design and evaluation model were essential to improving the usability of the user interface and thus facilitating users' actions and learning processes.

One important factor related to ill-structured problem-solving success is intrinsic motivation, that is, students' willingness to persist in solving the problem. Goal orientation, a motivational variable, explains reasons why students engage in the activity because they want to either learn or perform. This study investigated the relationship between these two types of goal orientations and their effects on motivation and problem solving by varying three instructional contexts designed to promote one of the two orientations. Heterogeneous and homogeneous peer grouping based on self-efficacy was also predicted to affect intrinsic motivation and problem solving. The results indicated that students in the learning-oriented context had significantly higher intrinsic motivation than those in the performance-oriented context. Students in the heterogeneous peer group had higher scores on monitoring and evaluating problem-solving subskills than those in the homogeneous peer groups. Learning-goal orientation and solution development were significantly related when students participated in the learning-oriented, heterogeneous peer grouping treatment group.