Introduction
Imagine an "isolated" learner in front of his/her pc. In a way this is everybody like you and me working on a computer. Mostly we don't feel lonely but busy-or-else. But there is an anticipated problem in on-line learning related to the demotivating consequences of feeling isolated. Isolation exists as a matter of location and also psychologically speaking. How can we avoid isolation during an on-line course? See the following discussion in Section 8.1.
Motivation deals with the question "Why do people do what they do?" In Section 8.2 we discuss the factors which increase or decrease the vigour of the learner's activity working on-line in the environment of distance education
Isolation has two dimensions:
The basic problem of on-line learning is the psychological dimension as a result of the physiological dimension. The student is sitting all alone in front of a computer having no chance to communicate face-to-face. Not only direct communication towards a teacher but also towards peers is missing.
Isolation and its emotional consequences effects motivation directly. Related problems are easy distraction (such as watching TV), when studying on one's own, or sufficient lack of interest so that the learner drops out. Group dynamics are missing totally and each learner is dependent on the situational mood and the stimulation the on-line program or other distance education media provides.
Historically most distance education uses printed lesson materials. Mail goes to the learner and back to the instructor through the mail. To add motivating communication and interaction when face-to-face contact is not possible, several technologies support communication and information exchange:
What do we need all those technologies for? Why is it important to motivate the student, how can this be done, and what actually is motivation?
These questions will be answered in Chapter 8.2.
Every human behaviour is motivated, because motivation explains why people behave as they do. Motivation can:
Wlodkowski (1984) wrote a book about enhancing adult motivation to learn. He classifies motivation into six factors.
8.2.1 Attitudes
In the beginning of instruction it is important to create a positive attitude towards the learning situation, the subject and the method. This can be done by:
Results from literature indicates a strong relationship between student attitudes and the return to the task.
Solutions for the Isolated Distance Learner:
Let the teacher introduce him/herself at the beginning of the course. After that the learning goals can be set. Then let the learners introduce themselves to each other in a personal way so that they can feel part of a group. This can very well be done by videoconferencing, but also by audio and computer conferencing.
8.2.2 Needs
How can the distant instructor meet the needs of isolated learners?
Solutions for the Isolated Distance Learner:
Make time for an informal discussion after the lesson with the entire group (videoconferencing). Make options (or refer to them) for learners who want to know more. Computer conferencing can also be used.
8.2.3 Stimulation
How can we keep the learner stimulated (during the educational process)?
Solutions for the Isolated Distance Learner:
Make variation in the presentation and the style. Challenge the learners with tasks, refer to other options and make them active participants. Shared work spaces will be excellent for this.
8.2.4 Affect
Affect (emotions) plays an important role during education. It is important to encourage and integrate the learner's emotions within the learning process.
Solutions for the Isolated Distance Learner:
Ask the question how the instruction was experienced in the discussion afterwards. Build group cohesiveness with that discussion. Make the possibility for a learner to contact the teacher when necessary with questions or other things. Computer conferencing, fax, or telephone make this easy to do.
8.2.5 Competence and Reinforcement.
Competence is very strongly related to reinforcement (the sixth factor from Wlodkowski); therefore they will be treated together in this section. It is important to let the learner feel competent, so that there will be a feeling of success. Reinforcement can help. The learner can be given a reward or acknowledgement and be satisfied.
Solutions for the Isolated Distance Learner:
Maintaining effective, personal feedback, using informative instead of controlling feedback. Computer conferencing can be a tool here.
Besides the theory of Wlodkowski there are more factors we think are also important. They will be described in the next two sections.
8.2.7 Arousal
"Arousal describes the general state of excitability of an organism the general level of alertness, responsiveness, wakefulness, or vigilance. ... The optimal level of arousal for our most efficient functioning is an intermediate level." (De Cecco & Crawford, 1974, p. 156)
Boredom is often the reason why learners disengage. On the other extreme, high arousal leads to anxiety and increased emotional disturbances.
Therefore the learner is meant to stay in an optimal (intermediate) level of activity. However everybody is different and the on-line activity usually cannot be adapted to everyone's individual, situational state, so either boredom or anxiety might diminish motivation.
Frustration is a conflict situation which a student faces when she/he cannot achieve the instructional or personal objective. Depending on the degree of frustration the individual may increase his/her effort to complete the task. More often, a conflict causes aggression and makes students quit working on a task.
Solutions for the Isolated Distance Learner
Intermediate arousal might be maintained by an awareness of who is present. Shared person space can be used very well for this, also any other form of shared group work. Telepresence is the collective sense of copresence among group participants. This includes facial expression, voice and body language.
8.2.8 Intrinsic motivation
Basically most learners in the context of on-line communication are intrinsically motivated. "Many students initially are enthusiastic about computers" (Mosley, 1984, p. 3). Here, on-line activities should be chosen that are intrinsically motivating, to the extent that they engage us in the process of seeking to solve personally meaningful problems whose outcome is uncertain and whose solutions require the exercise of effort and personal skill. These activities should provide us with some optimal, intermediate level of surprise, incongruity or discrepancy from our initial expectations and knowledge.
Tasks should be meant to be neither trivially easy nor completely familiar.
On-line activities should provide variables that influence challenge, curiosity and control, and are pleasant in general. Learners need to experience a feeling of autonomy, competence and self-determination. An ideal may be fantasy involvement (see arcade games, mario, but also MUDS on the Internet).
Do on-line tutors ever think of fun and suspense? The challenge is to create instruction that increases or maintain initial intrinsic motivation, whereby learning from the activity/course is enhanced.
Solutions for the Isolated Distance Learner
Keeping a kind of flow of discussion about each other's experiences while working in a concentrated way on an on-line activity through direct communication with the teacher and other participants can be a valuable strategy; thus, computer conferencing can be used very well here. But most important for intrinsic motivation is the learning activity itself, the content and the presentation.
It was very difficult finding information related to motivating an isolated learner in relation to on-line learning. Therefore we cannot refer to particular internet sources. Trying to find information we used "AskERIC" (e-mail). This is a very helpful source where you can go with all your questions. They referred to literature (unfortunately not available to us).
We have put a message on a newsgroup (alt.educ.distance). There were a few reactions, but not really helpful. Someone forwarded our message to a listserver (k12-euroteacher) with no results. Motivation is an abstract popular topic, not specified in literature when it comes to on-line learning.
Looking for an associated approach might have been profitable. For example, in retrospect, we see we could have chosen to look at examples of successful on-line activities to see what kind of strategies they use to motivate and stimulate their participants.
As an example, Harris and her associates (at the University of Texas) provide hundreds of lesson ideas for on-line activities on the Internet. To access these use anonymous FTP to:
Once there you can choose the subdirectories you want.
In this chapter we tried to give recommendations concerning the isolated distance learner, and anticipate problems concerning isolation and motivation. In other words: how to keep the isolated learner motivated? Modern technologies supply some efficient solutions; for example, there is not just e-mail and video conferencing, but the idea of shared space. Isolation is diminished by communication and interaction supported by new technological developments. This brings us to motivation in the context of on-line activities.
Wlodkowski names several factors like attitude, needs, stimulation, affect, competence and reinforcement. These are discussed and recommendations were given. Further theoretical aspects as arousal and intrinsic motivation were also described and recommended.
Lepper, M.R. & Malone T. W. (1987) Intrinsic motivation and instructional effectiveness in computer based education.(pp. 152-188) In: Snow, R.E. & Farr M.J. (Eds.) Aptitude learning and instruction, vol. 3.
Wlodkowski, R. J. (1984) Enhancing adult motivation to learn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass Inc. Publishers.
Mosley M.C. (1984) CAI and continuing motivation. Dallas, Texas: Eric Reports ED 243 432.