Learning in a virtual and complex environment: understanding the effect of academic self-efficacy and group perceptions on student burnout

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the introduction of teaching through different virtual methodologies in universities, specifically in undergraduate students. However, the global context has also led to different negative outcomes for students, affecting their perception of learning satisfaction. In this research, we focus on undergraduate students, exploring how the academic self-efficacy and perception of team competence are related to student burnout and, subsequently, to learning satisfaction. We collect data from 145 students of industrial engineering in a Chilean university. Using structural equation models, our results shows that academic self-efficacy is negatively related to the perception of academic burnout and this relationship is stronger when students perceive more levels of team-competence, subsequently, perception of academic burnout is negatively related to perceived learning quality. Our results can help universities to deal with the negative effects of virtual education by understanding students’ characteristics and team perceptions.