Motivation Improvement in Higher Education
Title: Enhancing Motivation in Online Courses with Mobile Communication Tool Support: A Comparative Study
Author Name: Chantorn Chaiprasurt and Vatcharaporn Esichaikul
Selected Case (Published Article): Chaiprasurt, Chantorn & Esichaiku, V. (2013). Enhancing Motivation in Online Courses with Mobile Communication Tool Support: A Comparative Study. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 14. 377-401. 10.19173/irrodl.v14i3.1416.
- Introduction: Motivation helps direct our behavior towards specific goals. Motivation determines the effort we put into achieving our goals. Reiser defines motivation as a person’s desire to pursue a goal or perform a task, which is manifested by choice of goals and effort (persistence plus vigor) in pursuing the goal (Reiser, Dempsey, 2017). Two types of motivation associated with learning are intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when you are motivated to perform a behavior because it is personally rewarding to you. Extrinsic motivation is when you are motivated by a reward or to avoid punishment. Students are more likely to be intrinsically motivated when they feel confident they can succeed at classroom tasks (Ormrod, 2018). Motivation directly influences a learner’s performance in online courses. Online courses require students to practice skills such as goal-setting, time-management, and seeking help. Without the motivation to practice these skills, learners do not actively interact with the course, instructors, or classmates. Instructors and institutions play a major role in motivation improvement. The instructor’s responsibilities in motivation improvement include gaining and sustaining attention, scaffolding, providing opportunities for collaboration, providing meaningful feedback, and presenting relatable content.
Mobile learning is when learners access learning content on mobile devices. Mobile learning includes content, computation, communication, and capturing the current context. Mobile learning is used in K-12 settings, higher education, and corporations. The uses take advantage of the 4 Cs, providing information to supplement formal learning or as performance support, computational capabilities for general or specific reasons, ways to communicate and collaborate, and to capture performances or contexts for reflection and sharing (Reiser, Dempsey, 2017). Mobile learning can be used in higher education for learners to check grades, collaborate, submit assignments, and communicate with instructors and classmates.
- Overview of the Case: In Enhancing Motivation in Online Courses with Mobile Communication Tool Support: A Comparative Study , the researchers explore how mobile technologies can promote learner motivation in students at a university. The study explored how to increase the motivational factors, attention, collaboration, satisfaction, relevance, and confidence in undergraduate students enrolled in online courses. The learners used the learning management system, Moodle, to access course materials. The motivational characteristic, state, was brought on by a stimulus (mobile communication tool). The mobile communication tools that were used included SMS, mobile instant messaging, mobile blogging, mobile polls, mobile RSS feeds, assignment feedback tools, gradebook tools, and attendance reporting tools. The researchers utilized a quasi-experimental research design to explore the impact of mobile communication tools on learner motivation. The ARCS motivational design model was used to guide the study. There are four components of the ARCS motivational design model, attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. 193 undergraduate students participated in the study. The students were 98% female between the ages of 18-21. There were two groups, the experimental (92 students) and the control group (101 students). The experimental group had the support of mobile communication tools and the control group did not have the support of mobile communication tools. The students were assigned to groups based on their demographic profiles. The students used the Moodle learning management system and used the same course materials. The researchers used subjective and objective assessments. The study was separated into three periods, the pre-treatment period, the treatment period, and the post-treatment period. Both groups started in the pre-treatment period. In the pre-treatment period, the students attended their regular online courses in Moodle and data on disengagement, engagement, and academic performance was collected. In the treatment period, the experimental group was supported by mobile communication tools integrated with Moodle. The control group had access to regular Moodle. The scores on the midterm were used to measure academic performance and academic progress. In the post-treatment period, both groups used regular Moodle. The researchers used help requests and final test scores to measure engagement and academic performance. The students completed an Online Course Motivation Survey at the end of the post-treatment period.
- Solutions Implemented: Motivational factors considered in the article were attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction, and collaboration. Researchers utilized various mobile communication tools to improve the motivational factors. To improve attention, learners used SMS and Mobile RSS feeds to encourage learners to ask questions, receive course announcements, and receive information related to the content (through forums or news). To improve relevance, learners used SMS to receive targeted online feedback. Learners used assignment feedback and gradebook tools to improve confidence. To improve satisfaction, learners used attendance reporting tools and SMS for grading results. To improve collaboration, learners used mobile instant messaging, mobile blogging, and mobile polls and votes. These solutions are associated with motivation improvement because using mobile communication tools gave the learners a sense of control over the learning process, which has been proven to increase learner motivation. The use of mobile communication tools also encouraged social interaction, which allowed learners to collaborate. Using mobile communication tools helped the learners develop their own motivation, which impacted their academic progress and performance.
- Outcomes: The research revealed differences in motivation between the experimental and control group. The researchers used objective assessment items, engagement, average scores on assignments, and the subjective assessment item, ARCS- Social ability to determine the differences. The learners who used mobile communication tools were less likely to drop-out and performed better on the midterm and final exams than the control group.
- Implications: The mobile communication tools were proved to be useful in the improvement of motivation in online courses. Mobile communication tools can increase learner engagement, interaction, and completion rate. Mobile communication tools can also improve learning efficiency in online courses. Researchers suggest using other forms of objective assessments to measure learner motivation, for example the number of page views and posts for each task. Research should explore the impact of online learning incorporating mobile communication tools and the learning outcomes. An additional area for future research is exploring how learners use Web 2.0 technologies, such as podcasts and Facebook as mobile communication tools.
References:
Hartnett, M., St. George, A., Dron, J. (2011). Examining Motivation in Online Distance Learning Environments: Complex, Multifaceted, and Situation-Dependent. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(6):20-38. 10.19173/irrodl.v12i6.1030.
Reiser, R. & Dempsey. J. (2017) Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. Pearson.
Ormrod, J. (2018). Human Learning. Pearson.