Relationship between Motivation and Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students of College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of motivation on the academic performance of undergraduate distance learners of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. The study was guided by two hypotheses; the relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic performance of Level 300 undergraduate students of College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast, Ghana on one hand, and that of extrinsic motivation on the other hand. The correlational research design was used for the study and a sample of 854 was made up of 530 education students 324 business students. In all, 815 questionnaires were analysed because 39 respondents partly answered the questionnaire. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to analyse the data to determine the relationship between variables. The results of the analyses indicated that extrinsic motivation (r = .078, P = 0.026) positively correlated with academic performance of learners of the University of Cape Coast Distance Education programmes in Ghana.  However, the results showed that there was no correlation between intrinsic motivation and academic performance of students. It was recommended that the praising efforts and strategic behaviours of facilitators of distance learners should be directed at helping them to focus on their learning goals. Also students cannot be interested in a task if they are not aware of the purpose it serves in learning.  It is therefore recommended that clear goals and aims should be set in their learning task to further cultivate the interest of students towards their academic pursuit.