The relationship between digital learning resource quality, attention control, academic self-efficacy, and college students’ learning engagement: the moderating role of metacognition

Digital learning has become one of the main modes of instruction for contemporary college students. However, the massive quantity of digital resources has posed challenges to college students' learning engagement. This study therefore constructed a moderated mediation model to explore the impact of the quality of digital learning resources on learning engagement, the chain mediation effect of attention control and academic self-efficacy, and the moderating effect of metacognition. This paper used a cross-sectional study and structural equation modelling analysis to establish a chain mediation model for the effects on the level of college students' digital learning engagement. The bootstrap method and multiple hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the mediating and moderating effects of the collected data from 606 samples. The results show that the quality of digital learning resources can affect the level of learning engagement directly or indirectly through the chain mediation of attention control and academic self-efficacy. Metacognition can also enhance the relationship between the quality of digital learning resources, attention control, and academic self-efficacy.