Group items tagged

Excerpt: "faculty autonomy, competence, and relatedness positively predicted autonomous motivation (intrinsic, identified), but not controlled motivation (introjected, external). Autonomous motivation, in turn, predicted greater incorporation of effective teaching strategies, namely instructional clarity, higher-order learning, reflective and integrative learning, and collaborative learning."

This is a heady rant about motivating your user. (7 min). While some of the big words might be off putting, the simple game examples should be inviting. ? It serves as advice on making someone feel glad they performed a task you setup for them. The speaker is talking about video games, and behavioral engineering, but I think it relates to motivating online students. _________________________ tl;dr? the core takeaway is: points ain't rewards. Just because you gave someone points, doesn't mean they received them as a reward. Points only work as rewards when they are a "token" of whatever currency the player values. I think this is fascinating to keep in mind when trying to motivate students. (you might think of grades and degrees as tokens in different currencies) + I'm curious to learn how much the field of "instructional design" leverages behavioral engineering.

Gates Foundation survey: "The research illuminates how different internal and external factors (motivational, behavioral, contextual enablers/barriers, values, beliefs, and demographics) come together to influence faculty members' willingness to learn about new pedagogies, incorporate new ideas in their work, and spread new ideas regarding teaching and learning to peers and campus leaders."

Lessons from a Texas A&M professor who flipped a 400-student "Introduction to Ancient Rome" course.

I'd love to hear some real world examples that address one point in the article: "Content delivery is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what to do in class that keeps students engaged, and motivated to prepare for class." If anyone in our group knows of some specific tricks teachers usually employ for this, please let me know. (lil' quizzes? Q&A discussions? or something more interesting?) I'm wondering if there are other sorts of multimedia activities I could make that would serve similar function.

Warren, good question! The peer instruction approach of Eric Mazur et al. (see http://mazur.harvard.edu/research/detailspage.php?rowid=8) is a popular in-class technique. Here are some of other methods OSU hybrid faculty use to link online and face-to-face spheres: 1 - A low-stakes weekly quiz online prior to each class meeting. 2 - A discussion that flows from online to face-to-face and back again. 3 - A very short online essay turned in before each class meeting that builds on the online content, and is tied directly to in-class discussion or group work that follows. 4 - An interactive multimedia lesson online that provides a foundation for or extends in-class learning. (Examples: I recommend looking at Simon Driver and Megan McDonald's hybrid EXSS 444--I can connect you.) 5 - Group work online (e.g., formulating a debate position or a solution to real-world problem) that feeds into the next f2f class activity. 6 - A quiz at the start of each class meeting based on the online content. Whatever the method, a key is that the learning activities online channel rather directly into the in-class activities and vice versa. Think of it as a long ping-pong volley between learning activities in the online and f2f spheres from the first day of the term until the final exam or project.

What is it? This summary of research on Project Based Learning also appears in the BIE book PBL for 21st Century Success. It provides a quick look at key studies showing PBL's positive effects on student academic achievement, mastery of 21st century competences such as problem-solving and critical thinking, addressing the needs of diverse learners and closing achievement gaps, and increasing students' motivation to learn.

"Teaching positively means that we intentionally consider how we can enhance learning environments, while at the same time increase the ways learners can be successful. Teaching positively aims to not only motivate learners but rather emphasizes how to increase their personal ability to achieve the course learning outcomes."