What are the most important predictors of Middle School Students' Online Academic Help-seeking Behaviors?

Abstract

With the rise of online learning and counseling, exploring the influencing factors of online academic help-seeking behavior can provide more targeted intervention and support for the students' individualized help. Taking mathematics as an example, we conducted a questionnaire survey on the seventh-grade students in two districts of Beijing, China, to explore the reasons why students differ in the choice of online academic help-seeking approaches. Results show that instrumental help-seeking and executive help-seeking have a significant impact on the choice of help approaches. The purpose of instrumental help-seeking is more positively correlated with the willingness of one-on-one online tutoring, and the purpose of executive help-seeking is more positively correlated with the willingness of the Q&A center. In terms of external factors, peer influence significantly predicts the willingness of two online academic help approaches. The fact that the tool is easy to use positively affects one-on-one online tutoring while it has no significant impact on the Q&A center.