The Relational Online Learner: Self-Directed Learning, University Belonging, and Student Engagement in Online Higher Education from a Self-Determination Theory Perspective

We examined the relationships between self-directed learning skills, university belonging, and student engagement in open online and distance learning environments within the framework of Self-Determination Theory. The research was conducted using a correlational survey model. Data were collected from 696 university students enrolled at a large-scale open, online and distance learning institution in Türkiye. We used three instruments measuring self-directed learning skills, university belonging, and student engagement. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that university belonging significantly and positively predicts all dimensions of student engagement. While self-control skills, learning skills, and sustaining the desire to learn significantly explain university belonging, metacognitive awareness and ability to identify sources were found to have no significant effect. Furthermore, it was found that university belonging acts as a significant mechanism in the relationships between self-control skills, learning skills, and sustaining the desire to learn, and student engagement. In this open and distance learning context, student engagement was not explained by individual learning skills alone. University belonging may therefore be one mechanism that partly accounts for the association between self-directed learning and academic participation. The study contributes by testing self-directed learning at the level of its dimensions, by identifying university belonging as a mechanism that partly accounts for its association with engagement, and by situating this model in a large-scale open and distance learning setting.