Assessing Students’ Motivation in Principles of Marketing Using the MUSIC Model in Varying Course Modalities

Higher education has been rapidly expanding flexible and online learning options, making it increasingly important to understand how course modality is associated with student motivation. This study examined motivational differences between face-to-face and online Principles of Marketing courses using the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation, which includes eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring. A 26-item MUSIC Inventory was administered using a two-wave design (Week 3, N = 60; Week 11, N = 56), yielding 116 anonymous survey responses that could not be linked at the respondent level across waves. Results showed online students maintained consistently high motivation across both waves, while the Wave 2 face-to-face cohort reported significantly higher Success than the Wave 1 face-to-face cohort. Caring perceptions were consistently higher among face-to-face students, while the online eMpowerment gap closed by Week 11 and face-to-face students’ perceived eMpowerment increased. Findings offer practical insights for enhancing student engagement and contribute to marketing education literature by addressing limited research on motivation across online and face-to-face modality formats.