Motivation in online learning

Motivation can be defined as a driving force for people to achieve a goal, which includes both intrinsic and extrinsic factors (Wikipedia, 2011). Motivation in learning has been a research topic in the academic field for a long time. However, there is still not much documentation on motivations in online learning. Motivation is very difficult evaluate because it is hard to tell why people have some behaviors.

Many theories and models can be found about motivation. To give two examples, the ARCS theory looks at four factors: attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction (Smith, 2008). On the other hand, the social cognitive learning theory emphasizes the importance of self-efficacy, a person’s belief about his ability to perform a certain task, and self-regulation, the control of the learning activity (Wikipedia, 2011).

As for the motivation in e-learning, four trends have been identified: personalization, adaptivity, affective tutoring and collaborative learning (Cocea & Weibelzahl, 2006). In some other research, it is found that the relevance of materials, timely feedback, goal-driven and product-based activities, personal growth, flexibility, interaction, collaboration and variety of activities all influence the learner’s motivation in online learning (Bonk cited in Smith, 2008; Knowles & Kerkman, 2007). Therefore, to motivate the learners online, the teacher needs to take a few measures. Firstly, the learning content should be related with the learners’ personal life or jobs. Secondly, the students need to be encouraged to brainstorm and share ideas so that they have an initiative to participate in the online learning and interact with each other. Thirdly, the teacher should organize some team projects for the learners to collaborate with and help each other. Fourthly, timely feedback needs to be provided so that students can feel the teacher is always there to help them and support them. Finally, different methods should be tried to attract the learners’ attention, such as using music, offering flexible learning content and a variety of activities, or inviting electronic guests.

In terms of literacy and numeracy education, in addition to the above mentioned motivation techniques, the most important consideration for an online course is its easy design and operation. This can help to promote self-efficacy, to make the students believe they have the ability to learn well online. Since most learners in this course have some sort of literacy or numeracy needs, they may not be familiar with computer technology and complicated softwares or programs may create a kind of psychological barrier among them and stop them from trying the new way of learning. What’s more, personalization is an important motivation factor in online learning among the literacy and numeracy students. The students should be able to choose what they want to learn and the learning process should be related with the students’ personal life or jobs. This may help students feel they have more control of their learning activity. If the learning content and the learning process can be combined freely at the students’ choice, the students will have more interest in learning it.

In conclusion, there are many factors influencing motivation in online learning. What a literacy and numeracy teacher needs to do is to stimulate both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation factors among the students so that they may find interest in their learning activities.

References:

Cocea, M., & Weibelzahl, S. (2006). Motivation – included or excluded from e-learning. doi: 10.1.1.75.520

Knowles, E., & Kerkman, D. (2007). An investigation of students attitude and motivation toward online learning. Student Motivation, 2, 70-80. Retrieved online from http://www.insightjournal.net/

Smith, R. (2008). Motivational factors in e-learning. Retrieved online from http://www.ruthcsmith.com/GWU%20Papers/Motivation.pdf

Wikipedia (2011). Motivation. Retrieved online from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation