LEARNING MOTIVATION AND STUDY ENGAGEMENT: DO THEY CORRELATE WITH GPA? AN EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIAN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Academic result for Information System students during the first year shows that average GPA for the first semester is 2.1. 47% of the first year students have GPA less than 2.0 and 17.6% have GPA less than 0.5. This problem is faced by the department of Information Systems, Faculty of Information Technology, Duta Wacana Christian University. This problem becomes a concern for faculty members and Information System department head. In this study, some factors that influence the student motivation and its correlation to GPA is conducted. 315 students are the subject of this study. 92 students are taken as a sample. This study implements clustered sampling from different grade (21 first year students, 34 second year students, 37 third year students). From GPA perspective (scale 4), 38 students have GPA higher than 3.25, 35 students have GPA between 2.5 to 3.25, and 19 students have GPA less than 2.5. Some questions are given to sampling students to discover some factors affecting student motivation and how students spend times outside the campus. This study finds that students have willingness to increase their GPA (9.2 out of 10). But this willingness are not supported with student's motivation to do the assignment (6.8 out of 10) and prepare the exams (7.6 out of 10). This study also finds that there is a positive correlation between GPA and academic motivation. There is no significant difference motivation among students who have low, medium, and high GPA, except in preparing exams.