Introduction:
ADVERSE EFFECT
Educators need design strategies to support medical students’ motivation in online environments. Prompting students to frame a learning activity as preparing them to attain their life goals (e.g., helping others) via their clinical practice, a strategy called ‘life goal framing’, may enhance their autonomous motivation, learning strategy use, and knowledge retention. However, for students with low perceived competence for learning (PCL), life goal framing may have an adverse effect. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the effectiveness of life goal framing and the moderating effect of students’ PCL.