Autonomy and motivation of learners – comparison of two learning platforms
Welcome to participate! Participating students will get two extra grade points.
This research explores and compares learner autonomy and motivation in two different cybersecurity learning platforms, Harpo and Plussa. The goal of the research is to gain insight how different kinds of platforms support learning and motivation, and to collect information to develop and improve learning platforms.
Harpo and Plussa platforms encourage learner autonomy very differently and the research maps learner experience in these two platforms. Besides variables of autonomy and motivation, the research compares self-efficacy and learning, both objective and perceived. Students taking Cyber Security I course in year 2026-2027 use Harpo and students taking the course in 2027-2028 use Plussa.
Participation in this research is voluntary. As background information, we collect your age group, gender, and information about your previous and current studies. In the survey, we also collect data regarding experienced course difficulty, motivation, self-efficacy, and learner autonomy. From Harpo we collect your learning self-evaluation, and from Sisu we collect your Cyber security 1 course grade. You can stop answering at any time, and you can also request the deletion of data you have already provided.
Your survey responses, Harpo learning self-evaluation, and course grade will be connected with your student number. During Harpo and course grade collection, your name is available to the researcher. However, your name will not be collected or used as part of the study. The combined data from the survey, your self-evaluation, and grade will be pseudonymised after the collection. The results will be reported in such way that individual participants cannot be identified from the results.
Additional information
- Research duration: 09/2026-12/2028
- Personal data processing period: Data is stored until one year has passed since the last planned publication.
- Privacy notice, check this for complete list of collected data
- Contact: tiina.schafeitel-tahtinen (at) tuni.fi
Instructions
Participate in the research after you have studied so much that you are planning to take the first exam.
- Start by taking the Maso self-evaluation. This is a mandatory part of the course, so you have to do it anyway before taking the exam.
- After submitting the Maso self-evaluation, complete the research survey.
- The survey is located in Tampere University LimeSurvey and the link is on Maso self-evaluation page.
- The survey is intended to be taken before the first exam. Surveys filled after the first exam cannot be used, thus also the two extra points are not given if the survey is filled after the exam.
- For the data connection, the survey asks your student number. By responding to the survey, you acknowledge that you know what data and how that data is used in the reseach.
- That's it. Thank you and you will get two extra points for the course.