Self-Regulated Learning: A Study of Feedback Seeking By Integrating Self-Motives and Social Influences in an Online Context

To have an effective online communication, individuals need to be self-regulated and self-initiate online conversations when needed. Feedback seeking is a key strategy of self-regulated learning through which individuals can gain more knowledge and become more adapted. Existing studies on feedback seeking mainly focus on personal motivation rather than social factors. Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this study examines how both self-motives and social influence affect individuals’ feedback-seeking behaviour. Moreover, based on the relational communication theory, we also investigate how the perceptions of informational and relational value mediate the relationships between self-motives, social influences and feedback-seeking behaviour. As learning styles can affect individuals’ learning motivation and learning effectiveness, individuals’ learning styles may interact with self-motives and social influence to affect their value perceptions toward feedback. We further examine whether learning styles moderate the effects of personal and social factors on value perceptions. A survey will be undertaken to collect the data and test the proposed hypotheses. This study is expected to inspire researchers and practitioners to pay equal attention to personal and social factors in online learning. The findings also attempt to shed light on the necessity of considering informational and relational value simultaneously in studying feedback seeking behaviour.