The role of prior experience when learning online: Its effects on engagement and interest over time

Research suggests that the assignment of utility-value to an activity can have positive effects on motivation to engage in that activity. When prior experience with a task is also taken into consideration, positive effects of utility-value information were found for both experienced and inexperienced students. These effects have yet to be examined in evaluative contexts (e.g., the classroom). The present study examined the moderating effects of prior experience on utility-value, in contexts where performance may be important. The role of gender was also examined. Study 1 brought college students ( n = 279) to the lab to participate in a 90-minute lesson where they were randomly assigned to either receive or not receive information about how HTML programming could be useful (utility-value). Results suggest that participants who had prior experiences with webpage creation, who were also forewarned about the quiz, had greater anticipated interest in the lesson material, which subsequently predicted greater engagement with lesson material and postlesson interest. For participants who did not have prior experience, knowing that there would be a quiz at the end of the lesson negatively predicted engagement and postlesson interest. The addition of utility-value negatively affected postlesson quiz score for participants who were forewarned about the quiz at the end of the lesson. Study 2 examined students ( n = 73) over the course of a semester-long, online introduction to webpage creation course. Students were randomly assigned to receive or not receive utility-value information at the beginning of each of four sections of the course. Results revealed that those students in the utility-value condition rated the course as less interesting than those who did not receive such information. Additionally, a 3-way interaction emerged between prior experience, utility-value, and gender, such that utility-value did not differentially affect male students as a function of prior experience; however, for female participants, utility-value information predicted greater engagement with the examples and exercises for those with no prior experience with webpage creation, and less engagement for those how had experience creating webpages. Implications of the present results are discussed.