Analyzing the relationship between student engagement in Online Learning and Achievement with mediator variables of Readiness and Learning Climate during the Covid-19 epidemic

Background: Creating conditions that guarantee the engagement of students in e-learning (online) courses and their academic achievement, has been very important and especially, after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, it became even more necessary. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of online students’ engagement on the achievement of learning, based on the mediating variables of online learning readiness and climate, by answering research questions.Method: The present study was fundamental and the statistical population were all students studying in the second half of the academic year 2020-2021, the undergraduate and graduate courses who had enrolled in virtual higher education courses and at least passed one semester final exam in the virtual course, (LMS course). The sample size was influenced by the assumptions of exploratory factor analysis and the number of constituents of five questionnaires. Using the facilities of the Internet and registration in Google, the questionnaires were provided to students by the researcher for 37 days, and according to self-declaration, 407 answers that were fully identified in every way, were selected and used in the final calculations. This study was derived from the distance education planning doctorate that was conducted in the year 2020-2021 at the graduate education center of Payam Noor University, Tehran.Results: The engagement of online students had a direct effect on two intermediate variables (readiness for learning and online learning climate). It also had a direct impact on the achievement in online learning.Conclusion: There were strong relationships between the online students’ readiness and engagement and the quality of online learning climate with academic achievement.