The effect of teacher support on Chinese university students’ sustainable online learning engagement and online academic persistence in the post-epidemic era

Since entering the post-epidemic era of COVID-19 at the end of 2021, schools have mostly adopted a combined online and offline teaching mode to effectively respond to the normalized epidemic, which has changed the traditional learning mode of students. Based on the study demand-resources (SD-R) model theory, this study developed a research model and proposed six research hypotheses to explore the relationship between Chinese university students’ perceived teacher support (PTS), online academic self-efficacy (OAS-E), online academic emotions (OAE), sustainable online learning engagement (SOLE), and online academic persistence (OAP) in the post-epidemic era. In this study, 593 Chinese university students were invited to respond to a questionnaire survey using the convenience sampling method. The results of the study showed that: PTS had a positive effect on OAS-E and OAE; OAS-E had a positive effect on OAE; OAS-E and OAE had a positive effect on the students’ SOLE; and SOLE had a positive effect on their OAP. Based on the analysis, it is recommended that teachers provide more support and resources to further enhance students’ academic self-efficacy and academic emotions, and thus ensure students’ SOLE and OAP.