Multilevel Analysis of the effects of participation, peer support, SRL and course disciplines on academic performance in SPOCs

The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among participation, peer support, self-regulated learning (SRL), course discipline and academic performance in small private open course (SPOC) environments. The study sample comprised of 309 undergraduates who completed SPOCs within the past year and consisted of 53% males (N = 164) and 47% females (N = 145). Multilevel modeling showed that participation, self-regulated learning, and peer support significantly predicted academic performance. Furthermore, findings revealed that emotional support did not have a significant impact on students' academic performance in contrast to informational support. In addition, students within science courses or social and humanity courses accomplish significantly higher academic performance than students within art courses. The findings also highlighted that, compared to students within art courses, the positive effect of participation and informational support on academic performance increased among students within science courses and social and humanity courses.