Self-determination theory assumes that the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are associated with motivational regulation. As these basic psychological needs may have been affected by the shift to distance learning, students’ motivational regulation and vitality may have suffered as well. The purpose of this study was to examine the motivational regulation, satisfaction, or frustration of the basic psychological needs and vitality of university students before and after the transition to forced distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Two student samples from Austria and Germany were studied: One was surveyed before the conversion to distance learning (N=1,139) and the other at the beginning of forced distance learning (N=1,835). The instruments used were the Scales for the Measurement of Motivational Regulation for Learning in University Students (SMR-L), the German version of the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale, a scale developed by the authors to differentiate the assessment of social relatedness, and the German version of the Subjective Vitality Scale. The results show that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs was significantly lower and the frustration thereof substantially higher during the distance learning period than before the pandemic. Intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were significantly lower during the forced distance learning period, and more controlled forms of motivation were higher than before the pandemic. Structural equation models showed that 42% of the students’ vitality can be explained by motivational regulation and the satisfaction and frustration of their basic needs. Motivational regulation styles functioned (differentiated according to the degree of autonomy) as mediating variables between basic needs and vitality. In terms of theoretical implications, the distinction between approach and avoidance components of introjected regulation was shown to be adequate and necessary, as they explain the outcome vitality differently. The support and avoidance of frustration of basic psychological needs should be considered in distance learning to promote the quality of motivation and students’ vitality.

During the pandemic restrictions imposed in spring 2020, many aspects of students’ living and learning environments changed drastically. From the perspective of Self-Determination Theory, changes in social context interact with the satisfaction or frustration of basic psychological needs and, as a result, with study-related motivational regulation and vitality. In this study, we investigate the relationships between the contextual factors of online-based distance learning, basic psychological needs, forms of motivational regulation and subjective vitality in a sample of N = 1849 university students across eight universities in Austria and Germany. Based on structural equational modelling, the results stress the relevance of satisfaction with technological resources in regard to higher levels of satisfaction in all three basic psychological needs, while perceived overload is linked to lower levels of needs satisfaction and increased basic psychological needs frustration. Further, the estimated workload difference before and during the pandemic is not related to the motivational outcomes of the model. All relationships have been tested for mediation effects between basic psychological needs and the different forms of motivational regulation on subjective vitality: for the need for relatedness, no mediation is found, while the effect of the need for autonomy is fully mediated by autonomous regulation styles. The need for competence was associated with several mediating interactions with regulation styles. The results offer insight into students’ perceptions of their study-related experiences during the pandemic and can help to develop effective methods in online-based and blended learning settings in the future.

This study examined the motivation of child and adolescent music students to learn instruments in five Austrian music schools using a person-centered approach. Drawing on self-determination theory, two autonomous and controlled forms of motivational regulation were surveyed. The results of a cluster analysis ( N = 616) were used to construct four motivational profiles: one autonomously motivated type (high quality), one overall highly motivated type (high quantity), one moderately autonomously motivated type (low quality), and one type with poor quantity motivation. The clusters showed differences in the support required to meet music students’ basic psychological needs in music lessons, which are essential determinants in the development of autonomous motivation, in the individual activity preferences associated with playing an instrument, and in the tendency to stop playing an instrument. No differences were found between the instrument groups and gender. This study provides theoretical and practical implications of a person-centered approach to music-related motivation research.

The worldwide imposed lockdowns forced schools and universities to digitise conventional teaching in a very short time and to convert teaching and learning formats partially or completely to Distance Learning. With 22 double blind peerreviewed articles of researchers reporting on 17 different countries, the editors of this book want to shed light on the effects of Distance Learning in different regions of the world.