Abstract

As universities offered online classes to students during Covid-19 pandemic, many college students experienced decreased academic motivation. In this study, we developed motivational interviewing online chat counseling(MIOCC) to improve college students’ academic motivation and their ability to regulate emotions while learning online. We provided three personalized MIOCC sessions according to the students’ motivation and emotion regulation levels. A total of 64 college e-learners participated in the study(mean age=23.23, SD=1.98), 32 MIOCC group and 32 of no-treatment control group. The results showed that MIOCC significantly improved the e-learners’ academic motivation, emotion regulation, and online learning abilities, while the control group did not demonstrate significant changes in these areas. Regarding more specific domains, the counseling group reported increases in their internalized academic motivation, all domains of emotional regulation, and in several domains of e-learning competencies. Our study suggests that MIOCC may be beneficial for college students experiencing difficulties in e-learning circumstances.