Motivating the instructional designer
Motivation is needed in all fields. The term motivation means "the general desire or willingness of someone to do something," according to the Oxford Dictionary.
The term "motive" came from a Latin root meaning "to move." It is the "why" of behavior and is defined as a desire that urges us to do something (Cheng & Yeh, 2009). When people ask you "What is your why?" what they mean is "What is your motivation to do what you do?"
In a classroom context, motivation refers to students’ subjective experiences, particularly students’ willingness to participate in class activities and their reasons for doing so. In a business environment, motivation helps us pursue a goal, persist in our decision and determine how much effort to spend on tasks (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).
Extrinsic motivation occurs when the cause of motivation exists outside of an individual and the task performed (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).The goal of the behavior is considered to be the reason for performing the behavior.
Intrinsic motivation occurs when the cause of motivation exists within an individual and task (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).The "doing" of the behavior is considered to be the reason for performing the behavior.
Motivation is a major concern in instructional design. In 1979, John Keller published an article that described the inadequate attention to motivation in ID and introduced an approach to incorporate motivation into the design of instruction (Cheng & Yeh, 2009). The interest in motivation and its integration into ID slowly grew after the publication of Keller’s (1979) article.
With the rise of online learning, there has been renewed interest in Keller's instructional model of motivation. It is much more challenging to motivate students online than it is in class. Keller’s model offers ways to keep students on task throughout online instruction. It is based on expectancy-theory, which “assumes that people are motivated to engage in an activity if it is perceived to be linked to the satisfaction of personal needs (the value aspect) and if there is a positive expectancy for success (the expectancy aspect)” (Kurt, 2022).
ARCS MODEL
Keller's Instructional Model of Motivation is known as the ARCS Model. According to Keller (1984), the ARCS model is ‘a system for improving the motivational appeal of instructional materials, of instructor behaviour, and of the way in which lessons (or modules) and courses are designed’ (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).
The ARCS Model contains three distinctive features:
1. Four conceptual conditions that subsume psychological research and motivational prescriptions that characterise human motivation.
2. It comprises sets of strategies that can improve the motivational appeal of instruction.
3. It incorporates a motivational design model that can be integrated effectively with other ID models.
(Cheng & Yeh, 2009).
The ARCS model identified four conditions that need to be fulfilled for people to become and remain motivated. Each of the four conditions is described in succeeding discussions (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).
ATTENTION - Before any learning can take place, the instructor must have the student's attention. Attention must be sustained throughout the entire process in order for meaningful learning to take place. It is important that the students are engaged in the topic; this can be accomplished by catering to the interests of the class.
RELEVANCE - In order for learners to retain information, they must view the experiences as meaningful, or relevant. Learning goals are clearly communicated to students to help them achieve the highest odds of success, learning goals are matched to the motives of students, and the information taught is related to the personal experiences of the learners.
CONFIDENCE - This refers to the students’ own belief to accomplish something and confidence in their ability for success.
SATISFACTION - Satisfaction is critical to continued success in learning. The students will be more motivated to learn if they are satisfied with the outcome. Instructors can promote satisfaction by implementing different strategies in class.
(Kurt, 2022).
Applying ARCS in ID
Besides these four conditions that comprise the ARCS model, the second major component of the ARCS model, called motivational design, provides a systematic design framework that can be integrated into typical ID models (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).
The motivational design process can be separated into the steps of define, design, develop and pilot. The define phase has three purposes: to identify the general level of learner motivation (audience analysis), to generate motivational objectives and to prepare methods for assessing the motivational objectives. Steps in the design phase include creating potential motivational strategies for each motivational objective, selecting appropriate strategies and integrating the strategies into the instructional content. The develop phase involves creating materials that effectively integrate the motivational strategies, enhancing existing instructional products and conducting developmental tests. Pilot is the final critical phase. It comprises implementing the instruction to representatives of the target population, administering formative evaluation and revising the instructional product (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).
In his article, Kurt gives two examples of using ARCS.
The first one is K-12 Example: Recycling Unit.
A: Create a display of landfill photos, barges, etc.
R: Keep a daily trash log, identify what each student throws out / recycles in a 24 hour period of time.
C: Create a plan for the class to lead a recycling program at the school.
S: At the end of the unit, tally up and report the amount of items that were RECYCLED due to the class effort.
The second one is a Training Example: Customer Service
A: Begin with a video of humorous non-example.
R: Throughout the training utilize scenarios directly from the employees experience (possible pull these examples from a pre-training server or SME input).
C: Create a job aid to guide the desired structure / type of response. Easy to use and apply.
S: Role play behaviors in the training; provide specific praise to the steps as they are followed.
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