Engagement with mathematics courseware in traditional and online learning environments: Relationship to motivation, achievement, gender, and gender orientation

Courseware is instructional software designed to transfer knowledge, skills, or conceptual understanding. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between engagement with courseware, academic motivation, and student achievement in two settings: traditional and online college mathematics courses (N = 164). Conducted within the framework of social cognitive theory (A. Bandura, 1986), the study addressed three research questions. First, to what degree do course setting, gender, and academic motivation variables predict student engagement with mathematics courseware? Second, to what degree do course setting, gender, academic motivation, and engagement with courseware predict student mathematics achievement? Third, if students' engagement with mathematics courseware or mathematics achievement differs by gender, is this difference a function of gender orientation beliefs? The first two questions were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. Course setting and self-efficacy for self-regulation significantly predicted engagement with courseware. Both mathematics grade self-efficacy and self-efficacy for self-regulation significantly predicted achievement, which was operationalized as a student's score on a departmental final exam. No significant gender differences were detected in either engagement or achievement; hence the third question was not analyzed. Additional findings revealed that student age also predicted courseware engagement among online students and that the interaction of gender and setting was associated with student retention. In particular, older online students were significantly more likely to engage with the courseware, and female online students were significantly less likely to complete the course than were their female traditional or male online counterparts. Implications for researchers and educators are discussed.