Understanding motivation in online learning

Speed, access and availability are all oft-quoted and real benefits of online learning. But speed and availability doesn’t necessarily lead to committed students. And, as we know, if students start a course and leave before the end their ‘failure’ can be pretty dispiriting for tutors and students alike. Their perception of online learning will be negative too. That’s why encouraging students to spend time exploring their motivations before they begin to study is a good idea.

So how do you encourage students to explore their personal motivation and what is motivation all about anyway?

What is motivation?

In their book Understanding Motivation for Lifelong Learning Jim Smith and Andrea Spurling suggest that motivation is a ‘private mental process, during which individuals weigh up the pros and cons of a potential action or goal and assess the likely personal benefits and costs’.

However, evidence from high performing athletes and business people reveals that those who have explicit, written goals perform better. So helping students to make their ‘private mental process’ explicit could help them to achieve more.

Trying to find your students’ motivation? Use a map!

Motivation Mapping™ is one of the techniques in the Reach programme. The Motivation Map™ is a practical tool to encourage students to identify and record their goals.

To quote Jim Smith and Andrea Spurling again ‘the extraordinary potency [of motivation] comes from being purposeful, focused on a particular action or goal’.

By creating a framework for students to think carefully about what they’re trying to achieve, why they want to achieve it and how they’re going about it, the Motivation Map™ enables students to tap into the benefits of goal setting and link goals to their personal motivations.

As a tutor this can give you an invaluable insight into your students’ individual goals and motivations. You can use this information at initial advice and guidance stage to make sure they’ve chosen wisely. And you can then use it to encourage and support them throughout their studies as they go through the inevitable peaks and troughs of learning online. For instance, if you know more about the context of an individual student’s life you can remind them of their desire for: job promotion, increased self-esteem, greater earning power, when the going gets tough and they’re thinking of leaving the course. Retaining students and helping them to achieve their desires will even be motivating for you too!

Ref: Understanding Motivation for Lifelong Learning Jim Smith and Andrea Spurling, Campaign for Learning, NIACE, 2001.