Investigating students’ E-Learning attitudes in times of crisis (COVID-19 pandemic)

With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the world, the vast majority of students in various educational institutions around the world have changed their learning styles from the physical classroom to digital learning education. Especially the fact that university students take their lessons with e-learning in times of crisis (COVID-19 pandemic) has forced them to spend more time with the computer. This situation will also affect their academic motivation. This research aimed to test whether the fear of contracting COVID-19 (CoVFC) had a moderating effect on the prediction of preservice teachers’ academic motivation (AMOTV) with their computer self-efficacy perceptions (CSE). With a combined approach, a single model was employed to test the moderating role of CoVFC and the mediating role of Attitudes towards E-Learning (ATEL) in the prediction of preservice teachers’ AMOTV with their CSE. 522 preservice teachers from 21 different branches participated in this research. As a result of the research, the CSE of preservice teachers were determined to predict their AMOTV significantly and positively. The increase in CoVFC was found to have a negative moderating effect on the prediction of AMOTV with the CSE of preservice teachers. Also, ATEL was found to have a partial mediating effect in the relationship between the CSE and AMOTV of preservice teachers.