摘要：Developing students’ digital skills and self-confidence in their ability to purposefully use online learningopportunities is considered important for achieving educational objectives. This study empirically exploresantecedents of young people’s beliefs about agency in online learning by applying structural equationmodeling to a sample of 3400 Nordic youth age 15–17. The targeted antecedents are young people’spreferences for either net-induced self-determination of learning aims, content, and processes (onlineculture) or institutionalized schooling as they currently experience it (school culture). We find that bothfactors are positively related to digital agency, but that the relationship between online culture and schoolculture is strongly antagonistic. Furthermore, online time in class is positively related to online culturebut negatively related to school culture. We argue that formal schooling’s efforts to capitalize on students’informal learning experiences through introducing more net-based activities in class might bolster digitalagency through improved technical expertise (medium-related online skills), while simultaneously deprivilegeinstitutionalized schooling and the acquisition of the substantial knowledge required for thedevelopment of content-related online skills. Students’ preference constructions and beliefs regardingformal and informal learning processes are particularly significant if we are to facilitate educationallydesirable synergy effects and avoid troubling inconsistencies.
