Understanding Self-Regulated Learning Online
Self-regulated learning (SRL) provides a theoretical framework for understanding how learners actively manage their own learning. Rather than viewing successful learning as the result of ability or motivation alone, SRL focuses on the cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, behavioral, and environmental processes learners use to set goals, carry out learning tasks, monitor progress, interpret results, and adjust what they do next.
Self-Regulated Learning and Online Education
Whipp and Chiarelli’s 2004 case study applied a social-cognitive model of self-regulated learning to a web-based graduate course. The study examined how six successful graduate learners used and adapted established SRL strategies to complete course tasks and respond to challenges in an online environment.
The researchers found that learners used many traditional self-regulation strategies but adapted planning, organization, environmental structuring, help-seeking, monitoring, record-keeping, and self-reflection to the conditions of web-based learning. They also identified self-efficacy, goal orientation, interest, and attributions as important motivational influences, while instructor support, peer support, and course design were important environmental influences.
The table below preserves the conceptual organization used in the original SUNY Online Teaching resource and illustrates how familiar self-regulated learning strategies were adapted to online learning in that early study. Some examples reflect the technologies and practices of the time; the categories themselves remain useful for understanding the work learners do to regulate learning online.
| SRL Phase / Strategy | Traditional Examples | Online Adaptations Identified by Whipp & Chiarelli (2004) |
|---|---|---|
| Forethought | ||
| Goal setting & planning | Calendars and organizers; self-imposed deadlines; breaking work into smaller parts. | Frequent course check-ins; coordination of online and offline work; planning ahead for technology problems. |
| Performance & Self-Observation | ||
| Organizing & transforming instructional materials | Note-taking; outlining; underlining or highlighting; graphic organizers. | Printing and marking up course materials and discussions; composing and editing postings offline; sorting discussion threads; summarizing; self-testing; using flashcards. |
| Structuring the learning environment | Reducing distractions; using strategies to support concentration and persistence. | Finding reliable computer and internet access; creating a psychological place for class. |
| Help-seeking | Phone, email, or personal contact with instructors or peers to obtain help. | Accessing technical expertise; contacting peers to reduce isolation; using web-based help; using peer postings as models. |
| Self-monitoring & record-keeping | Charts and records of completed assignments and grades. | Maintaining multiple backups; tracking reading and writing for discussions; frequently checking the online gradebook. |
| Self-Reflection | ||
| Self-judgment | Using checklists and rubrics; using instructor comments and grades. | Using the audience of peers to shape and evaluate discussion contributions. |
| Self-reactions | Interpreting success primarily through academic performance. | Interpreting success across technical, social, and academic performance in the online environment. |
Adapted from Whipp, J. L., & Chiarelli, S. (2004), Self-regulation in a web-based course: A case study, Educational Technology Research and Development, 52(4), 5–21. The wording has been updated for readability while retaining the original conceptual categories and distinctions.
Motivation and the Learning Environment
The original table emphasizes observable strategies, but Whipp and Chiarelli also found that strategy use was shaped by motivational and environmental conditions. In their study, self-efficacy, goal orientation, interest, and attributions influenced how learners regulated their learning. Instructor support, peer support, and course design were important environmental influences.
This matters because self-regulated learning should not be interpreted as a model in which learners are solely responsible for overcoming whatever a course requires of them. The learning environment can make self-regulation easier or harder. Clear course design, instructor presence, timely feedback, meaningful peer interaction, manageable workload, and visible support structures can all provide conditions in which learners are better able to plan, monitor, seek help, and adapt.
Why the Framework Still Matters
Contemporary research continues to treat self-regulated learning as an important dimension of online higher education. A 2024 systematic review of 31 studies of college learners in online environments identified cognitive quality, motivational quality, autonomy support, goal structures, feedback, perceived control, and perceived value among factors associated with online self-regulated learning. The review also emphasized timely supportive feedback and interactive learning environments as important considerations for instructors.
The value of the SRL framework, then, is not that every learner should follow one fixed set of behaviors. It gives faculty a way to recognize the often-invisible work learners must do to manage learning online and to design teaching practices that help learners develop greater awareness, control, and adaptability over time.
References
- Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012109890-2/50031-7
- Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(2), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4102_2
- Whipp, J. L., & Chiarelli, S. (2004). Self-regulation in a web-based course: A case study. Educational Technology Research and Development, 52(4), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02504714
- Panadero, E., & Alonso-Tapia, J. (2014). How do students self-regulate? Review of Zimmerman’s cyclical model of self-regulated learning. Anales de Psicología, 30(2), 450–462. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.30.2.167221
- Dong, X., Yuan, H., Xue, H., Li, Y., Jia, L., Chen, J., Shi, Y., & Zhang, X. (2024). Factors influencing college students’ self-regulated learning in online learning environment: A systematic review. Nurse Education Today, 133, 106071. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2023.106071