Academic Coaches, aka online education teaching assistants, are a fast-growing and underutilized resource for higher education institutions. These third-party professionals are a vital support system for overworked and overcommitted faculty members. They can help higher education institutions by providing much-needed support for larger online classes.
The specific needs will vary from class to class and institution to institution. Still, Academic Coaches can assist with everything from grading assignments to managing discussion threads and helping post-approved course announcements. Institutions of higher education looking to support their online courses have been turning to the Academic Coach model more frequently in recent years to improve student outcomes.
However, while the Academic Coach model is becoming more utilized, the motivations and goals of Academic Coaches have been understudied aspects of the model. It’s also a critical piece of the Academic Coaching model; as more students turn to online education, the role of Academic Coaches will become increasingly intensive.
The motivation of Academic Coaches is critical to help them endure intensive online education alongside their other responsibilities, which significantly impacts student outcomes. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke investigated this specific question and unveiled some unique research through surveys and interviews with Academic Coaches. This research offers institutions of higher education glimpses into why Academic Coaches chose the role and what motivates them, with implications for overall online education courses.
Literature Review
Past research into what motivates a person is critical to understanding why Academic Coaches choose their line of work. The study examined extrinsic and intrinsic motivators as viable facets of a motivated individual. Self-determination theory, in particular, is a valuable paradigm for understanding process and behavioral outcomes, as different motivations can lead to different results. Various levels of internalization on the autonomy continuum can lead to varying levels of identification with any task, and this backdrop was considered when developing interview and survey questions.
The last element of pertinent literature to consider is the idea of prosocial motivation. The desire to help others is a key motivator, and other research suggests that prosocial motivation leads to greater identification with one’s work.
The Questions: What Motivates Academic Coaches?
The interview questions focused on three specific questions:
- Why Did You Start Working as an Academic Coach?
- What Will Give You More Motivation to Work as an Academic Coach?
- What Makes You Want to Stay and Work as an Academic Coach?
For the first answer, financial compensation was a top motivator. Over half of all respondents (57%) considered financial compensation a critical motivation to begin working as an Academic Coach.
One respondent noted, “It’s a good supplement to my income because I am at a small university, and they don’t pay well, and I’m a single mom.” However, other motivations were noteworthy. Flexibility, the ability to work online, and the chance to educate without working as a lead instructor were motivations for many Academic Coaches.
However, other motivators were identified by research outside of these external regulation motivations. Many Academic Coaches identified staying in their field and experience as key reasons they stayed with Academic Coaching.
The opportunity to work directly with students was also a top answer, with 69% of respondents choosing this option as a critical motivator. Similarly, 46% of respondents considered helping students a key prosocial motivator.
Results & Limitations
This research helps understand the specific motivators behind Academic Coach behavior and ties this behavior to broader research on prosocial motivation and outcomes. Ideally, this research can be an excellent backdrop for instructors to contemplate when interacting with Academic Coaches or their higher education institutions when developing online courses.
Regarding limitations, it is worth noting that this research is only as good as its method. Surveys and interviews are very much dependent on the answers provided by respondents. This research still offers good insight into the extrinsic and intrinsic motivations of Academic Coaches, but what was true for these respondents might only be valid for some Academic Coaches.
Ideally, future research would integrate instructor impressions of Academic Coaches’ performance to determine if there was a perceived lift in performance associated with specific motivations.
This research was funded by a grant from Instructional Connections, the top provider in the Academic Coach space. The entire presentation and results can be found here for further study.
