EDTECH 503: Module 6 - Motivational Strategies in Instructional Design

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Challenges We Face

Learning something new can be a challenge. In fact, it's my opinion that most worthwhile learning endeavors should be challenging. So when the going gets tough and a you hit a barrier, what is going to motivate you to climb over it and continue towards the goal?

This week we explored a number of strategies for motivating learners to not only find focus and relevance, but also to instill confidence and satisfaction. Using Dr. John Keller's ARCS model  (A = Attention; R = Relevance; C = Confidence; S = Satisfaction), we learned various ways an instructor can use motivational tactics to encourage someone to want to learn and feel good about their learning. Then, we revisited our instructional design projects to find ways we could use Keller's model to provide motivational moments for our learners. The results were outstanding!

Reflection on Experience

In many ways it reminded me of the times I taught middle school Spanish using the International Baccalaureate framework for lesson design. The IB framework requires an educator to begin with an opener, or a hook, that will not only get the students' attention, but also orient them to the coming activities of the day. For example, if we were going to learn vocabulary of the neighborhood, I may have decorated the room with various objects from a typical urban neighborhood and asked students to label them without any formal, prior learning. The hope would be that students would develop a desire to know the actual names (and if they were correct) since an opportunity to succeed or fail had been presented before formal learning occurred. This idea plays off of our innate curiosity and desire to know as a necessary starting point for motivated learning.

I think this applies to instructional design for adults as well. It's a powerful thing, wanting to know. The trick can often be creating moments for learners to develop a desire to know something and then show them how they can find the answers. For my course, in which Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) develop the skills necessary for recording, uploading, and hosting a video on Moodle, I thought beginning with some captivating example videos that other GTAs had created would be a good starting point. The desired result is that many of the learners would want to create something similar and begin to wonder how.

Final Thoughts

One final thought. An instructor and/or designer must identify what can motivate or is motivating the learning group to participate and succeed in the course. Is there a new initiative passed down from management? Are the learners new employees with no prior knowledge of how to perform their job functions? In other words, why are the learners taking the course? A basic understand will go a long way, but a misunderstanding many doom the course from the beginning. Demonstrating an understanding of motive builds trust, trust that the instructor will lead their learners towards the right goals and not waste time taking them down the wrong path.