LTGR Ep. #68 - “Motivation”
Thursday, October 29th, 2009In this episode, Susan and Dan revisit a universal topic: how to motivate learners.
Show Notes:
Susan and Dan revisit a universal topic: How to motivate learners. They base their discussion off of Learning Solutions e-Magazine article “Five Strategies to Enhance Learner Motivation in e-Learning Design” by Joe McCleskey. This newsletter is available through E-Learning Guild as an associate member (free). To put this in context, McClesky is mostly talking about self-paced elearning courses.
Strategy 1: ARCS model - Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction. Susan spends a good deal of time boosting confidence. Dan resonated with the idea that intrinsic motivation lasts longer. Extrinsic motivation is not inherently bad.
Dan describes a baking activity as an example, and Susan questions the assessment.
Strategy 2: Think structure. Nine to 10 minutes at a time! This relates to the cognitive science about changing activity, and the ideas behind accelerated learning support this, too.
Strategy 3: Increase visual interest. Photos, video, graphics. Images must directly represent the content. As for video, Joe writes that today’s audience has high standards, but Susan thinks about youTube.
Strategy 4: Emotion. The advice is to take a light approach, however. Too much emotional edge will bury the learner and could backfire.
Strategy 5: Tell a story and use the narrative.
Put these 5 together and you have a checklist that can apply to any design.
Book review at the end of the article: Visual Language for Designers by Connie Malamed. Connie also hosts a blog, and in one of Dan’s favorite entries, she shares a tip for building curiosity called progressive revelation.
Listeners, tell us what you find most compelling and what motivates you. How much do you think about this as you design? Continue the discussion by posting at ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada).
