**1. Introduction**

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused significant disruptions to traditional classroom teaching around the world, leading to increased use of distance-learning methods [1–3]. This change has been made possible by the rapid development of information technology, which has made it possible for students to complete their education at a distance. Traditional classroom teaching has gradually integrated the Internet and distance learning methods [4]. While this transition has been challenging for some educators and students, it has also opened up new opportunities for flexible and accessible learning [5,6]. With the ongoing global pandemic, distance learning will likely continue to play an important role in the future of education. Due to the rapid development of technology, distance learning has become a new learning trend that allows learners to create a learning environment that is not limited by space and time. Learners have the flexibility to learn at anytime and anywhere, allowing them to customise their learning plans according to their progress and paces [7]. However, because learning can take place without the constraints of space and

**Citation:** Kuo, Y.-C.; Lin, H.-C.K.; Lin, Y.-H.; Wang, T.-H.; Chuang, B.-Y. The Influence of Distance Education and Peer Self-Regulated Learning Mechanism on Learning Effectiveness, Motivation, Self-Efficacy, Reflective Ability, and Cognitive Load. *Sustainability* **2023**, *15*, 4501. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su15054501

Academic Editor: Antonio P. Gutierrez de Blume

Received: 3 February 2023 Revised: 27 February 2023 Accepted: 1 March 2023 Published: 2 March 2023

**Copyright:** © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

time, it is difficult for students to feel engaged in the actual classroom [8]. Teachers are also unable to provide more personalised instruction.

Cognitive load refers to the mental effort required to process information during learning. The complexity of the textbook content and the way the content is presented can impact cognitive load. When students experience a high cognitive load, it can impede their ability to process information and negatively impact their learning outcomes. Therefore, it is important to consider the impact of cognitive load on students in a distance learning environment and to develop effective learning strategies to minimise its effects. Research indicates that students who are low achievers are more passive in the learning process. They struggle with achieving a thorough understanding of the subject area, developing effective learning skills, and identifying opportunities for success in their studies. Thus, they gradually lose motivation for learning and achieving the necessary goals. It has also been shown that students who do not employ efficient learning strategies during the self-adjustment phase of learning in a distance environment cannot efficiently gain knowledge [9]. Therefore, in order to learn in a distance environment and achieve good learning outcomes, students' self-regulated learning skills must not be neglected.

The development of students' self-regulated learning is an important goal of education today. Prior studies on self-regulated learning have mostly focused on how learners monitor their own learning outcomes, self-adjustments, and improvements. Reflective ability plays a crucial role in this process, as learners who are able to reflect on their learning experiences can identify their strengths and weaknesses and make necessary adjustments to their learning strategies. Yet, in certain situations where learners experience psychological or theoretical doubts, they may not be able to receive emotional, academic, instrumental, and informational assistance from a self-regulated learning environment.

If students can receive feedback and interact with others, it might make them feel less isolated. Such interactions with others can also help the learners work through various psychological and emotional issues, thus ultimately increasing learning effectiveness [10]. Effective self-discipline practices are essential for enhancing students' learning outcomes since they have a positive influence on their self-motivation and self-efficacy [11]. While teaching students knowledge, it is crucial to cultivate good self-discipline habits and enhance peer support in the learning environment.

This can significantly enhance students' learning results while enhancing their motivation for studying, self-efficacy, sense of accomplishment, and ability to cope with stress [12–14]. Hence, this study will use the remote peer self-regulated learning mechanism to (1) construct a self-regulated learning system to aid learners in observing their peers' learning status and goals during the learning process, and (2) enable learners to set their own learning goals and provide mutual support through remote peer learning. It aims to investigate the impact of incorporating a distance peer learning mechanism on learners' motivation and learning effectiveness in the self-regulated learning process, and further analyze the effect of students' varying levels of learning achievements.

The research questions are as follows:


### **2. Related Work**

### *2.1. Distance Learning*

With the progress of technology, people's use of the Internet has also changed with the development of the times. Thus, traditional face-to-face teaching methods are gradually being replaced by distance learning in teaching and learning. This allows learners to create a learning environment that is not limited by space and time. Learners can adjust their own learning plans to fit with their paces. As distance learning offers diverse resources for learning, it has become an increasingly popular mode of education [15].

When learning in a digital environment, learners gain greater control than in traditional learning. They have more flexibility in their management of time and space, and choose methods and tools that match their preferences, abilities, and learning pace. Therefore, in the digital learning environment, the ability of learners to control themselves and use learning strategies will have a profound impact on learning outcomes.

Among the types of distance learning, several types of teaching materials for students are listed. These include "lecture capture, talking-head lecture", which records students' reactions and the teachers teaching in the classroom. Another type is "voice-after entering the screen", which briefs the teacher's voice and picture-in-picture. A third type is "picture-in-picture", which includes images, sounds, and digital teaching materials in the teacher's classroom through post-production and their integration with digital teaching materials, etc. [16].

The effectiveness of instruction in distance education was assessed in light of students' self-learning abilities, teaching skills, teachers' instruction, and textbook content. The results revealed that most students have a positive view toward the implementation of distance education and appreciate its effectiveness. On the contrary, the are several disadvantages associated with distance education, including the following [17–20]:


Therefore, this study developed a distance peer learning system for an algorithms course to explore how students can receive peer support and assistance in a self-regulated learning process, focussing on course materials to enhance learning effectiveness and motivation.

### *2.2. Self-Regulated Learning*

Self-regulated learning is a set of behaviour adopted by individuals to achieve learning goals, including control of thoughts, emotions, and environmental behaviour. Learning can be adjusted through strategies such as goal setting, strategy selection, and monitoring [21]. Therefore, it has been crucial to build students' self-regulation skills during the learning process in aid of strengthening areas of deficiency based on their past learning experiences.

According to past research, high achievers are more likely to plan their learning according to their learning status, set clear goals, use more learning strategies in the learning process, and constantly review themselves and adjust their learning status. The four steps of the self-regulated learning cycle model proposed by Zimmerman [21] include self-assessment and monitoring, goal setting and planning of strategies, implementation and monitoring of strategies, and monitoring of strategy outcomes, as described below:

1. Self-Assessment and Self-Monitoring: first, students will assess their level of performance on a learning task and determine how effective their learning is based on their past performance and effectiveness;


Self-regulated learning systems allow distance learners to have plans and goals, and learners can adjust their learning status during the self-regulated learning based on past learning experiences to address deficiencies. Zimmerman illustrates that learners go through a three-stage cycle of self-regulated learning, consisting of forethought, performance or volitional control, and self-reflection [12]. Forethought is a process in which learners analyze a task, set goals, and plan how to achieve them before performing the task. Performance or Volitional Control is the process by which learners monitor their progress while performing tasks and using self-control strategies to maintain their motivation to participate. Self-Reflection is an assessment of how well a student completes tasks that are attributed to their success or failure. These attributions produce self-reactions that can have a negative or positive effect on students' performance in the later stages of learning.

According to previous research on self-regulated learning systems, most students can only see their own learning performance and cannot see the learning status and performance of other learners, nor can they interact with each other. When learners encounter difficulties or face setbacks in the learning process, peer support is a buffer that helps learners express their emotions and restore their learning goals. Therefore, this study developed a model based on the three-stage cycle of self-regulated learning described by Zimmerman above. In the forethought stage, past learning records and peer set goals are provided for learners, allowing them to evaluate and formulate learning strategies in a structured manner according to their own learning conditions, rather than setting them haphazardly, which may result in poor learning outcomes. Test questions are employed to monitor learners' learning to ensure that learners are focusing on the curriculum and to compare their learning with that of their peers, thereby identifying appropriate learning strategies.

With the prevalence of distance teaching, research on self-disciplined learning has received increasing attention in recent years. Joo et al. [22] used the MSLQ scale to explore the "self-efficacy of traditional teaching", "self-efficacy of self-disciplined learning", and "self-efficacy of online learning". The results of the study found that "self-efficacy of online learning" is better than "self-efficacy of traditional teaching". Kao [23] proposed scaffold-assisted research on self-disciplined learning in asynchronous network teaching. The experimental background is a general course of asynchronous network teaching at a university. The setting of learning goals is used to explore college students' self-disciplined learning abilities. The results showed that this teaching environment and the mechanism of self-disciplined learning can effectively improve the situation, quality, and regularity of learning.

Hwang et al. [24] proposed that using a computer-assisted self-disciplined learning system helps assist students in classroom learning. With the availability of current school equipment resources, teachers can have a considerable impact on students' self-disciplined learning by formulating learning strategies. Therefore, it is feasible and essential to develop a self-disciplined learning system. Chen [25] established a personalised learning systems, "PELS", assisted by a self-disciplined learning mechanism. This system can help students increase their learning performance in a self-disciplined learning setting. The empirical results have proved that the self-disciplined learning mechanism, built by scholars, can facilitate students' learning effectiveness and self-discipline abilities.

The above research on self-disciplined learning found that most learning systems are aimed only at individuals and offer limited chances for peer learning via distance learning systems. Real-time detection and monitoring of student performance in self-disciplined learning are also missing. Therefore, this study aims to (1) enhance students' learning status by monitoring and detecting their performance during self-disciplined learning and providing peer support, while (2) also promoting students' learning effectiveness and motivation.

### *2.3. Self-Explanation*

Self-explanation is a related discourse on solving problems or things [26]. It is a learning activity that can enhance the depth of learning. Many studies have also demonstrated the effectiveness of self-explaining learning and teaching strategies, and they have been widely used in different learning areas [27], such as programming, math, refs. [28–32], science [33–36], and biology [37–39]. These studies have confirmed that self-explanation has a positive effect; it helps to improve students' learning achievement and problemsolving skills.

Chi [40] believes that self-explanation integrates prior knowledge and external knowledge via reflection, which allows students to identify gaps in their understanding and fill them in the learning process [41]. In order to produce better quality descriptive knowledge [42], many scholars also mentioned that reflection is crucial to the construction of knowledge and can significantly boost students' learning performance [24,43–45].

Therefore, when learning reaches a certain level, the system provides test questions. When accessing incorrect answers in the test, they are engaged in self-explanation to reflect on their problem or seek help from peers if they are unable to solve the problem. By reflecting first and then gaining feedback from peers, learners can enhance their understanding and solve problems more easily. In this study, a distance peer self-regulated learning system was developed to investigate the effect of the peer self-regulated learning mechanism on the learning outcomes. During the learning process, learners can see the progress of their peers to stimulate their motivation to learn. When a student encounters a problem, they can seek help from peers by reflecting on the options for the question they answered incorrectly. Peers will explain the options based on the reflection. After the study, students can review their learning results and reflect on and adjust their learning to the areas where they fall short of their peers. Therefore, this study explores the effect of a distance peer learning mechanism on students' learning effectiveness and motivation and analyses the effects of different learning achievements on students' learning effectiveness.

### **3. Research Method**

### *3.1. Conceptual Framework*

In this study, students enrolled in an algorithm course at the Department of Information Management of a university in Taipei were divided into the control group and the experimental group. The variables of self-efficacy, motivation, learning effectiveness, reflective ability, and cognitive load of learners with different learning outcomes are all explored separately in relation to the effects of self-regulated learning with and without distant peer learning mechanisms The independent variables include learning strategies and learning achievement. The section on learning strategies includes general self-regulated learning mechanisms and peer self-regulated learning mechanisms and discusses the impact of different teaching strategies on learners. Additionally, the section on earning achievement will discuss whether two different types of learning achievement learners have different effects on the effectiveness of distance peer self-regulated learning mechanisms. The dependent variables are the effects and differences in learning effectiveness, motivation, self-efficacy, reflective ability, and cognitive load after the learners have completed learning. The control variable was examined before learning to ensure that students in both groups had the same prior knowledge of the algorithm and that both the control and experimental groups used the same materials and learning system.

The research structure of this study is shown in Figure 1, which includes the following three research variables:

### 1. Arguments

It contains two independent variables: teaching strategy and learning achievement. The section on teaching strategies discusses two methods: the general self-regulated learning system and the self-regulated learning system using the distance peer learning mechanism. The results of different learning strategies and learning effectiveness on learners are also examined. In addition, the section on learning achievement explores whether successful learners demonstrate different effects and differences as a result of the distance peer self-disciplined learning mechanism.
