Self-efficacy in Internet-based Learning Environments: A Literature Review

This paper reviews 46 papers from 1999 to 2009 regarding self-efficacy in Internet-based learning environments, and discusses three major categories of research: (1) learners’ Internet self-efficacy, assessing learners’ confidence in their skills or knowledge of operating general Internet functions or applications in Internet-based learning; (2) the interplay between learners’ general academic self-efficacy and their Internetbased learning, and (3) learners’ self-efficacy, particularly in terms of Internet-based learning. In general, students’ self-efficacy plays a positive role in their attitude towards and their processes and outcomes derived from Internet-based learning. It was found that for the reviewed studies, a significant amount of research has adopted search tasks to predict students’ learning outcomes in Internet-based settings, implying that search tasks may still be considered as the most commonly implemented Internet-based learning activities. All of the studies utilized questionnaires or surveys for assessing students’ self-efficacy, and mostly selected students in higher education institutes as their samples. It was also found that relatively few empirical studies were conducted from the theoretical perspectives of the initially proposed concept of self-efficacy.