Researchers have discovered that a low level of instructor motivation can have negative effects on instructors, such as low-quality teaching and low engagement for the students. The purpose of this study was to explore university instructors' experience with motivation and how it might be important to their graduate students' experiences and success. This qualitative case study followed the conceptual framework of two motivational theories: the self-determination theory and the achievement goal theory. The research question explored instructor motivation and how students perceived that motivation. Furthermore, the research question and subquestions were designed to reveal ways instructor motivation influences graduate students. The study included 8 graduate students and 6 instructors of graduate students. Data sources were 2 written assignments with instructor feedback and interview responses of graduate students and instructors of graduate students. Data analysis included reviewing responses to interview questions and instructor feedback on written assignments. Open coding and axial coding were used to help ensure that categorization of the data was accurate. The resulting themes were (a) [The belief in student abilities], (b) [Being physically and mentally present], (c) [Relatedness], (d) [Instructor/Student synergy], and (e) [Instructor immediacy]. When the graduate students felt the instructor possessed high levels of motivation, they too felt highly motivated. The findings of this study tie instructor motivation to students and students' motivation back to the instructors. The instructor's and student's levels of motivation also impacted their coworkers or peers' level of motivation. The findings of this study could lead to future studies confirming the tie between instructors' and students' motivation and how it is contagious to those who are exposed to it.

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Bivariate correlation was used to examine possible relationships between instructor immediacy and instructor presence, and a statistically significant correlation was found. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine whether the linear combination of instructor immediacy and presence caused significant variance in student affective learning, cognition, and motivation. For all three of the latter dependent variables, the linear combination of instructor immediacy and presence was found to cause statistically significant variance. However, although the overall regression models were significant in all three tests, instructor immediacy was not found to be a significant individual predictor for causing variance in affective learning, cognition, or motivation, whereas instructor presence was found to be a significant individual predictor of all three. Finally, factorial ANOVA revealed that, for perceptions of instructor immediacy, only classification and course type were found to explain significant variance, with undergraduate students in asynchronous courses reporting significantly lower instructor immediacy. For perceptions of instructor presence, graduate students tended to rate their instructors as having higher presence than did undergraduate students, and students in synchronous courses tended to rate their instructors as having higher presence than did students in asynchronous courses.