Why the concern about motivation and completion rates?
Although there are many articles and studies regarding the role of adult learner motivation, and regarding the lack of motivation to persist and to finish a prescribed online activity, there is not much discussion of reasons to be concerned about dropouts. I argue that we do not need to be concerned about dropouts at all. Is there any concern in the traditional adult classroom environment about dropouts? Is there any bottom-line effect from low adult learner completion rates? It simply does not matter.
Adult learner motivation is an issue in the classroom only when the instructor cannot get students to participate or to respond to questions. It may also be an issue when the student reaction survey at the end of the course reveals negative comments regarding the instructor’s ability, the quality of the instructional materials, or the ability of the instructor to engage the students. In the last case, if it happens often enough, there is an issue with adult motivation, with management, with customer satisfaction, and ultimately with course design and development. Adult learner motivation would be a larger issue in the classroom if a significant percentage of students started a course but did not finish it. This is rare, due to management influence, instructor influence, and peer pressure in traditional instruction.
If motivation is not an issue (or less of an issue) in the traditional adult classroom environment, why would it be one in an electronic environment? If it is more of an issue in the electronic, online learning environment, does this mean that we are failing somehow as instructional designers and developers?
Adult learner motivation is an issue in asynchronous instruction because of the lack of interaction to engage the learner, and the lack of controls incorporated into the applications. Concern about adult learner motivation in this on-demand era is also the product of incessant comparison to traditional classroom learning. Finally, the concern with adult learner motivation is a sign that we are undergoing the last phase of a paradigm shift from adult learners in traditional classroom environments to adult learners in virtual environments, and to knowledge workers in the just-in-time, just-when-I-need-it environment.
So what are some practical ways to attract a learner’s attention, maintain, and sustain it? Table 3 presents some tips and tricks based on my nine years of professional experience as an instructional designer in the telecommunications, IT, and military training industries.
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Instructional Design |
Software Design/Programming |
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1. Gain the learner’s attention through an initial lesson/module screen that makes the learner think about what s/he already knows and what s/he will learn in this instruction. |
1. Animation and “Flash” is good here because it attracts attention for a short time. |
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2. Strive to push the levels of interactivity to one level above the client requirement. |
2. Establish templates, scripts, or a set of routines that you can reuse to make programming higher levels of interactivity more efficient. |
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3. Provide remediation in the form of a lesson review. Tap back to lesson con-tent when review questions and performance measures are incorrect or not met. |
3. Design relationships between content. |
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4. Design using Sharable Content Objects. Tag instruction by SCO name and number to facilitate tracking. |
4. Auto-bookmark the content for ease of entry into previously accessed course-ware. |
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5. Encourage the real-time application of the courseware to work tasks via real hardware, software, etc. |
5. Include reminders throughout the courseware for the student to use the courseware as a real-time job aid. |
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6. Make student interactions with the courseware significant. (By significant, I mean interactions that require thought.) Spoon-feed first in one mode of instruction, and then slowly wean them from direction. |
6. Flashy is flashy and most often not significant. Slowly increase the level of free play and discovery, and by so doing, increase the amount of thinking the student does. |
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7. Make instruction performance-based. |
7. Adults are used to performing/thinking. Make them think. Make them perform by learning-by-doing. |
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8. Design in key words tied to every reusable learning object. |
8. Allow searchable content through key words so that students can quickly find the information they are looking for. |
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9. With performance-based content, design for demonstration (Show Me) and practice (Let Me Try) |
9. Program in a Show Me button and routine, and a Let Me Try button and routine, for each practice lesson. |
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10. Provide instructional text that goes beyond product/content documentation. Include golden nuggets of knowledge from SMEs. |
10. Include highlights in instructional text that the student should pay particular attention to. |
Conclusion
In summary, here are my answers to the questions that I have posed in this article.
Can designers create asynchronous learning content that will successfully motivate adults to finish? No. Instructional designers, software designers, and programmers can only create asynchronous content that is engaging.
Is there any concern in the traditional adult classroom environment about dropouts? Not really, because everyone considers adults to be responsible for their own learning.
Is there any bottom-line effect from low adult learner completion rates? There is an overall impact on learning for society as a whole, but a student pays for online instruction up-front, not when s/he completes the course.
If motivation is not an issue (or less of an issue) in a traditional adult classroom environment, why would it be one in an electronic environment? In my opinion, it is only an issue created by online learning vendors to market their courseware (“80% of our students complete their courses.”)
If motivation is more of an issue in the electronic learning environment, does this mean that we are somehow failing as instructional designers and developers? No. One cannot control adult learners in a self-paced environment, no matter how well designed or how interactive the courseware. There are too many variables outside the control of the designers and developers including work, busy lives, lack of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and even attention deficit disorder. A final word of advice: Design well, and let completion rates take care of themselves
Reference
Kim, Kyong-Jee. “Motivational Influences in Self-Directed Online Learning Environments: A Qualitative Case Study.” Paper presented at the 2004 International Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). AECT 2004 Annual Proceedings, Volume 1. October 2004.
