Undergraduate students’ motivation to online learning in a low-resource setting: Challenges and expectations

Motivation is essential to online learning since it determines students’ engagement, involvement, perseverance, and academic performance. This chapter sheds light on the state of motivation among Bangladeshi undergraduate students and investigates their expectations and challenges regarding online learning. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected following an explanatory sequential research design. The chapter has demonstrated how the motivational status of students can be improved and how the academic year and academic performance are related to online learning motivation. Moreover, students in a low-resource online learning environment encounter challenges due to insufficient technology accessibility, economic crisis, poor internet connection, problems accessing learning resources, teachers’ and students’ preparedness problems, and an unfavourable learning environment. After examining students’ expectations for online learning motivating exponential increase, the final section discusses policy, pedagogical, and research consequences.