Effects of Digital Tool Types on User Engagement and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction in Online Learning

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a mega-theory about motivation. Basic Psychological Need Theory (BPNT), a sub-theory of SDT, claims that motivation is fostered when all three basic psychological needs - autonomy, competence, and relatedness - are satisfied. With COVID-19, the search for designing effective online learning tools has become more important than ever. Also, because students in higher education are more independent of their learning, researching how digital learning tools benefit or hinder them is important. One of the frameworks that attempts to integrate SDT into technology is the METUX model (Motivation, Engagement, and Thriving in the User eXperience). This field is relatively unexplored and there are many unanswered questions regarding autonomy design in technology. Specifically, Jeno et al. argued that there are inherent need-supportive elements in mobile learning tools. Taking the types of mobile tools into consideration might generate insight into what those inherent elements are. In addition, new relationships between the type of digital tools and user engagement can be discovered. In search of this, I performed several regression analysis of how the type of digital tools affected autonomy, competence, and user engagement