Learning burnout, which is a negative state of learning and seriously reduces learning engagement, has become more prevalent in online instruction. Especially during the COVID-19, loneliness during the online learning has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers, who have found that it exacerbates the risk of social media addiction and increase rates of depression. However, the relationship between loneliness and academic burnout in online formal learning has not been well explored in previous studies. Therefore, the present study explores whether and to what extent loneliness suffered by students in online formal learning triggers academic burnout, and whether there are factors that buffer the effects of loneliness on academic burnout, thus filling the gap in the current research.
