This study investigated how differently virtual high school students engage and achieve in mathematics courses and
what quality of theirs makes such differences. We addressed the following research question: How do high
performers and low performers differ with regard to their changes in motivation, regulation, and engagement
throughout the course? We compared such changes from the beginning of the semester to the middle of and the end
of the semester. In this study, motivation variables included self-efficacy and intrinsic value, regulation variables
included metacognitive regulation and effort regulation, and engagement variables included cognitive engagement
(i.e., using deep cognitive strategy use and shallow cognitive strategy use) and emotional engagement (i.e.,
experiencing boredom, anxiety, enjoyment, anger, shame, pride, and hopelessness). Table 1 summarizes each
construct and variable