Study of students' self-determination in virtual College of Mehr-e-Alborz with regard to principles of Heutagogy

This paper is to investigate the heutagogic self-determined learning behavior of the students according to the theoretical foundations and framework of the heutagogic approach which has been carried out as a case study in Mehr-e Alborz virtual university. Among study population of Mehr-e Alborz virtual university students which were 690 people, 120 students were selected randomly by means of Proportional Stratified Random Sampling according to Morgan table and were then studied based on the heutagogic learning behavior level. Heutagogic learning behavior of the students from their view points were collected based on demographic variables (age, gender, semester and academic performance) by a researcher-developed questionnaire. The results indicate a significant relationship between two variables of academic performance and heutagogic learning behavior So that heutagogic learning behavior explains about 35% of the changes in academic performances of electronic students. Totally the heutagogic self-determined learning behaviors of the students have been estimated by intermediate or rather good level.