The effects of the Tencent Virtual Community on college students' motivation and engagement in online language classes

This research tried to investigate how the use of the Tencent virtual community influenced college students' motivation and engagement in online language course. The instructors and the technology engineers worked together to design the online class. The participants were 320 freshmen from a university in eastern China. The results showed that the students involved in the Tencent virtual community were more motivated and engaged in their language classes than those in the traditional lecture classes. In addition, students' course perceptions of success and interest predicted their engagement among the two group students. These findings indicated that the Tencent virtual community incorporating motivational strategies are effective strategies for college instructors' pedagogical design to improve students' motivation and engagement. This study provided evidence for the effectiveness of the Tencent virtual community in college students' language classes and it also emphasized the importance of motivational strategies of success and interest in the instructional design of college language classes. Implications and limitations are discussed.