An Investigation of the Factors Affecting Teacher and Student Motivation in Online Education

Online education has become a central part of our lives with the outbreak of coronavirus disease and it has determined the success of online education. The current qualitative study, which employs thematic data analysis, aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the impact of online education on preparatory school students and instructors. Therefore, semistructured interviews were conducted with a total of six instructors and nine students in a large state university. All the participants were chosen via purposive sampling. The results indicate that online education has motivating and demotivating dimensions for the participants. Its flexibility, time-saving aspect, lesson recordings, and enabling introverted students to study at their own pace were found motivating, while distracting factors, lack of interaction especially for extroverted students, insufficient training to conduct online lessons, disconfirmation of expectations regarding the preparatory school students' first year of university life were found demotivating. However, the participants reported an increase in their motivation level since the beginning of the transition to online education with getting accustomed to online education and an increase in the proficiency level. The results of the study have a number of implications for policymakers to gain the utmost efficiency in the online education process. Keywords: English language teaching, learner motivation, online education, preparatory school, teacher motivation