How remote learning impacted elementary students’ online self-regulation for learning: a COVID-19 natural experiment

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant switch to remote learning enabled a natural experiment to observe and compare the self-regulation strategies used by elementary students in hypermedia environments. Specifically, the same participants (N = 48, M_age = 10.75) were observed in two learning contexts: a traditional classroom with their teacher present, and remote learning from home where all learning was conducted and completed digitally. In both contexts, students completed self-report instruments about their perceived self-regulatory behavior and were individually observed completing a research task in a digital context. Observational data was coded using an established framework of self-regulation for learning (SRL) behaviors in computer-based learning environments. Results showed that the context of the learning did not impact the SRL strategies of elementary students, with no significant differences between the self-reporting or observational data in all categories, or in task performance. The level of consistency between the patterns of SRL behavior, self-reporting and task performance in both environmental contexts was a remarkable finding of this study. Surprisingly, despite remote learning demanding higher self-regulatory capacity, results show that elementary students did not automatically acquire or develop self-regulation skills, nor adjust their existing patterns of SRL behavior in this new learning context.