Revisiting Chinese EFL learners’ online learning satisfaction: the predicator roles of self-efficacy and motivation

Although more students are turning to online education, not all of them achieve success in these types of courses so the focus was drawn to students’ satisfaction. One of the noteworthy aspects of online instruction is satisfaction, and detecting its predictors can increase the value and achievement of online learning. Consequently, inspecting the elements which affect learners’ online learning satisfaction seems to be critical. For instance, having assurance in one’s abilities, also known as self-efficacy is a crucial determinant in anticipating satisfactory online learning outcomes. Moreover, the success of online education profoundly depends on the motivation of students as it demands their utmost effort and active involvement in the learning journey. Subsequently, this research attempts to scrutinize the roles of self-efficacy and motivation as the constructs manipulating online learning satisfaction in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) milieu. To this end, 458 EFL learners took part, and running Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) showed that both self-efficacy and motivation could predict online learning satisfaction, but self-efficacy was a stronger predictor that represents about 81% of changes in the EFL learners’ online learning satisfaction. Additionally, it was proved that motivation had also a considerable impact on their satisfaction as it can predict about 52% of changes in the EFL learners’ online learning satisfaction. Finally, the results of this paper provide implications for EFL stakeholders.