Engaging Students Podcast

The purpose of this podcast is to summarize the importance of engaging students in the classroom and the future of instructional design. The podcast can be found by clicking on Engaging Students Podcast

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. I constantly ask myself, what inspires me to do well? I suggest that you ask yourself the same question. Perhaps your parents, significant other, people that you have met along the way, fantastic teachers, and/or your passion/drive are contributing factors towards your success. What about that one teacher that believed in you and gave you hope and aspiration? I have been fortunate to have several of those and one particularly in the Instructional Design masters program that I am currently enrolled in at University of Houston-Clear Lake. The bottom line is that we need to engage our students to become motivated learners. Motivated students will eventually become entrepreneurs or work for an employer. These motivated employees will help bring new ideas and are more productive. It's important to understand motivational theories such as ARCS Model, Goal Setting Theory, and Self-Regulation Theory in order to help our students succeed. Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University as well as an inspiration to many, applied ARCS Model to his lectures and projects. Hopefully you can apply some of these theories to your classroom or workplace and/or personal life.

Teachers Don't Motivate Students. They Inspire Them!

Tim Kanold is an award-winning educator, in-demand speaker, and educational leader. He speaks about the reaction that a young teacher expressed towards his presentation. The young school teacher stated on a blog, "Our job as teachers should not be to motivate students. It should be to inspire them."

Are Your Students Falling Asleep in Class?

Many teachers have problems keeping their students motivated to learn. The video summarizes ways to keep your students interested. It is important to assist in monitoring their goals, encouraging student input, and model excitement for learning.

Motivational Theories Overview

The presentation was created by the author, Dagmar Kusiak. The slides summarize important motivational theories: ARCS model, Goal Setting Theory, and Self-Regulation Theory.

Motivational Theories

View more presentations from Dagmar Kusiak.

Applying ARCS Model to Engage Students to Learn

Instructional Design Defined

        Instructional Design or sometimes referred to as Instructional Technology or Educational Technology, contains several definitions and meanings. To limit confusion, I will discuss the field as Instructional Design. Berger & Kam, (1996) defined instructional design as a process, a discipline, a science, a reality, a system, a technology and development (para. 1-8). In summary, Instructional Design is a relatively new discipline, created for helping students and teachers learn in the most effective way. The word “Instructional” implies that this is a study of a learning process. In order to help teachers, the instructional designers must have an understanding of psychology, the discipline that deals with the way humans think and behave; two important factors that create our human experience. Instructional designers must focus on motivational theories to help students learn in the most effective way.

Applying I.D. Techniques to Motivate Students

       Research shows that setting objectives is an effective way of helping students learn and recall information (Briggs, Gustafson, & Tillman, 1992, p. 110). Learning becomes very frustrating when a student does not understand the goal(s) of the project. It is important for the students to set not only the long term goals of the project, but the short term goals as well (Briggs, Gustafson, & Tillman, 1992, p. 110). This Applications of Technology course, for instance, is presented with both short and long term goals. One of the long term goals for this course is to create a blog website. Instead of presenting the blog website project on the first week of class and giving the students a few months to explore, the students are given short term projects or milestones to help them develop the skills to complete the blog. I believe that the course layoff keeps the students motivated because the short term projects help prepare the students to complete the blog website.
       The ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction) model encourages successful achievement of objectives (Branch & Fitzgerald, 1999, p. 89). The four components of the ARCS model are essential in helping motivate students.
       Attention: It is important to grab the students’ attention through posing questions and giving them a variety of examples and exercises that can keep them interested (Branch & Fitzgerald, 1999, p. 89). In the distance learning course that I teach, I give students a variety of math problems to keep them interested, as well as to give them opportunities to practice.
       Relevance: Students need to understand the purpose of the project or material that is being taught. The students need to be presented with objectives (Branch & Fitzgerald, 1999, p. 89). The students need to be able to relate the material to their previous experiences or future goals (Branch & Fitzgerald, 1999, p. 89). This course emphasizes relevance because this assignment is tied directly to my interests in the future. OneNote is a very important tool for instructional designers to understand, but more importantly the research is tied directly to my career endeavor.
       Confidence: Students feel confidence when the learning requirements are clear, opportunities to succeed in learning are obvious, and the students feel that they have the ability to learn on their own (Branch & Fitzgerald, 1999, p. 89). In distance learning courses, the students are more likely to succeed if they have intrinsic motivation. However, it is still important for the teacher to have confidence in the students and to make sure the requirements are clear.
       Satisfaction: Students must have a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction (Branch & Fitzgerald, 1999, p. 89). I have noticed that extra credit can be a positive motivator, as well as introducing a variety of methods to learn (i.e. YouTube videos, podcasts, links, exercises etc.).

Work Cited

Berger, C. Lubowe & R.Kam (1996, Oct. 18). Definitions of Instructional Design. Retrieved from http://www.umich.edu/~ed626/define.html

Branch, M.B. & Fitzgerald, M.A (1999). Educational Media and Technology Yearbook. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ScG4TZE4h_EC&oi=fnd&pg=PA89&dq=apply+instructional+design+to+motivate+students&ots=3s1sx1k1fO&sig=0V_nFayXXe7a5cWTW4c6xINMQI0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Briggs, L., Gustafson, K., & Tillman, M. (1992). Instructional Design Principles and Applications. Implementation (2nd edition). Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ScG4TZE4h_EC&oi=fnd&pg=PA89&dq=apply+instructional+design+to+motivate+students&ots=3s1sx1k1fO&sig=0V_nFayXXe7a5cWTW4c6xINMQI0#v=onepage&q&f=false