Impact of basic psychological needs fulfillment on teachers’ well-being in online communities: designing for well-being

Abstract

This study examines the use of Online Communities of teachers (OCs) and their impact on educators' well-being, while exploring the broader implications for platform design. These OCs provide educators with opportunities to connect, share resources, engage in discussions, and enhance their professional practice. Based in the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this research uses the METUX framework to explore how teachers' perceptions of technology use affect the fulfillment of their basic psychological needs within OCs, ultimately impacting their well-being. Therefore, we build the main motivation of this paper: Propose well-being informed design implications based on the OCs of the ILDE+ environment: a total of 88 teachers, users of three streamlined versions (OCs) of the ILDE+ Environment platform, were recruited. Our analysis (including reliability, discriminant validity, correlation, and network analysis) reveals specific teachers’ needs of technology use that relate to the SDT factors and influence teachers' well-being and behavioral trends in OCs, with some limitations regarding the specific dimension of Autonomy of TENS-Interface. Generally, Interface interactions typically impact the link between competence and autonomy, which in turn reverberates to relatedness. While task performance impacts competence and relatedness as an interconnected cluster and autonomy on a more individual basis. Additionally, perceived platform usefulness boosts teachers' self-efficacy and confidence, supporting higher engagement and knowledge sharing. These findings offer guidance for targeted design improvements to better support teacher well-being in OCs, by exploring the factors explaining technology use behavior. We also outline limitations and directions for future streamlined implementation-specific research.