Motivating students who are sitting live in front of you can
be a difficult task. How does one
motivate students potentially 1000s of kilometers away? This is a task that instructional designers
and teachers face when designing and instructing their distance education
courses.
Over the duration of ETAD 802, I have been trying to
synthesize the topics we’ve been learning and attempt to make sense of them
from a holistic perspective. I found the
topic of open learning to be very interesting.
In my previous post, I posted about MIT aiming for a goal of a possible
1 billion learners taking part in open learning from their institute. I thought to myself: what would motivate
students to take these courses, even if they are non-credit? From an instructional point of view, what do
students find important?
In my earlier readings about learning and motivation,
Bandura’s four principle sources for influencing self-efficacy beliefs were
drawn to my attention (see Driscoll, p.
318) and I tried to relate them to the readings I’ve done about open
learning. I came across a study entitled
“Faculty actions that result in student satisfaction in online courses” by Lana
C. Jackson, Stephanie J. Jones, and Roy C. Rodriguez. I realize that satisfaction and motivation
are two different things, but I could not help but feel that some of their
findings would be applicable to Bandura’s principles.
Even though the course in the study is not an “open
learning” environment per se, I found that elements of the findings could be
applied to on online instructor in an open or closed format. Especially interesting to me is that the
study focused on what educators can do to obtain student satisfaction. If a class size of 1 billion is to be
obtained, the quality of instruction must be very high!
Accessibility of the instructor, clear expectations, and
enthusiasm from the instructor were variables that were important to the
learners in the study. On average, these
factors were deemed more successful at student satisfaction over variables such
as course activities. I found this
interesting!
Relating to Bandura’s principles, the study found that….
- Enactive mastery experiences providing
feedback – the students viewed a timely response from the instructor as
important in the perception of their value of the course. Shall I teach online again, I would just have
to figure out how to get to as many at once.
Using message boards would be an option.
- Vicarious experiences – I found this
quote from the article to sum it up exactly “… teaching presence includes the
faculty member’s ability to facilitate and direct cognitive and social
engagements within the online environment in such a manner as to provide
meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning experiences and outcomes for
the enrolled students” Once learners see
what others are contributing, they follow the lead of the other learners. Educators just have to provide meaningful
topics. This is applicable both on and
off camera.
- Verbal Persuasion – the relatively high
value found in the study for “enthusiasm for student learning of the
instructor” could be construed as a motivator for further interactions and
encouragement of success.
- Success Dependent on Physiological States –
no mention or indicators in article.
I also came across another study that correlated student
satisfaction versus performance in blended learning curricula conducted by Dr. Nachamma Sockalingam at SIM University, Singapore. Take a look:
She states that since programs are increasing at a high rate
quality is important at retaining and attracting learners. Therefore, satisfaction is related to
motivation which could lead to increased performance.
I plan to keep tabs on developments in open learning and
student satisfaction!
Jackson, L. C., Jones, S. J.,
& Rodrigues, R. C. (2010). Faculty actions that result in
student
satisfaction in online courses. Journal
of Asynchronous Learning
The relationship between satisfaction and motivation is fascinating (and also probably indirect). A colleague of mine developed the RCD model of motivation. RCD stands for relevance, competence, and desire. It asks three simple questions: Do learners think the learning is relevant? How competent o they feel? And how much do they desire to undertake the job of learning? These factors interact, to create some pretty interesting combinations. For example, if someone feels something is not very relevant, feels completely incompetent, but wants to learn it , you can have a pretty interesting time teaching them. You probably need to demonstrate the relevance, and carefully build a sense of competence, so you don't destroy the desire to keep working.
ReplyDeleteBut satisfaction often comes later, doesn't it. Whether or not I'm motivated to learn something, I still feel satisfied (smug self-satisfaction sometimes) that I did. When I first learned the Greek alphabet, I somehow felt a deep rush of satisfaction, despite the fact that I had no motivation to learn it in the first place.
I find motivation fascinating! The mix of students that I currently have seem to be intrinsically motivated. I also see that a lot of this comes from their parents. An interesting video that I came across on motivation in general is this http://vimeo.com/8480171 While it does not talk about motivation and distance learning, it is an interesting conversation to have.
ReplyDeleteHi Rick! I especially agree with your comment about satisfaction, especially that "smug self-satisfaction" feeling! I get that when I accomplish an especially difficult task. In a way, that motivates me to tackle even bigger challenges.
ReplyDeleteAaron, I also have students who are intrinsically motivated - I really notice that in my grade 12 calculus classes. They are a joy to teach. On the other hand, however, the less than motivated ones are also the ones who keep us as educators honest!!!