Can Computer-Based Learning Environments (CBLEs) Be Used as Self-Regulatory Tools to Enhance Learning?

In this commentary, we utilize a social cognitive view of self-regulation to analyze the computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) that are described in the various articles in this volume. Although these CBLEs are creative ways of engaging students' metacognitive processes, their impact on students' motivational beliefs and self-reactions has been given relatively little attention to date. Self-regulation research on these sources of motivation in traditional learning environments has shown that they can play a vital role in explaining students' self-initiative and perseverance in the face of setbacks. When analyzing the forms of self-regulatory instruction that were employed, 2 of the CBLEs followed the first 2 sequential levels of a graduated "social-to-self" pattern advocated by social cognitive researchers. However, the other CBLEs often made nonsequential use of such social cognitive instructional processes as modeling, tutoring, providing feedback, and self-research.