Online Education Platforms as a Trajectory in Exam Preparation: Determinants of High School Student Choice

The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the online education market increasingly attracts the attention of the public and large investment funds. A year after its launch, “Coursera”, the largest US platform of mass open online courses, raised more than $85 million in venture capital, and today reaches an audience of more than 35 million users around the world. Let us refer to online education in Russia. Our market is also actively developing and became one of the priorities for investments. As reported in the "Yandex" analytical report, Russia accounts for 0.5% of the global online education market (Edmarket, 2020). Calculated from such dynamics, the market volume for 2020 is at the level of 80 billion rubles. The coronavirus pandemic also influenced the growth of popularity of online education. This study examines high school students who are preparing for the Unified State Exam using online platforms. The purpose of this study is to identify motivational factors that affect the assessment of the platform as a productive and comfortable trajectory for preparing for the Unified State Exam for high school students. In the course of the study, 8 in-depth interviews were conducted and a survey was launched, which was completed by 338 respondents. The study has a mixed design. The result of the study –subjective norms, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and the level of usefulness of the school curriculum affects the satisfaction with the choice of an online platform as a trajectory for preparing for the Unified State Exam and evaluating it as comfortable and productive. The structure of the work consists of a theoretical chapter, two empirical chapters (interview and survey), analysis and interpretation of the results, and conclusions. Keywords: platforms, online education, USE, motivational factors, Planned behavior theory