Identification of Factors Affecting the Learners' Motivation in an E-Learning Scenario for Industrial Design Education

Abstract

Industrial design has certain "niche" aspects illustrating precision and level of detail which are introduced to the students to fulfill real-world design expectations. As reported in literature, encouraging students to undergo an online industrial design course while simultaneously maintaining their motivation is a difficult task. Today, technological advancements in e-learning are being employed to make industrial design education and learning more engaging for students. The learners are rapidly changing their e-learning practices and motivations in response to new innovations. Research suggests that the technological advancements in e-learning are appealing primarily because they are novel and different. Later, when learners get used to them, they may lose their interest leading to loss of motivation. Motivational factors of an e-learning platform can be an aid to understand learners' motivation and knowledge gaining methods. However, there has been a dearth of literature featuring methods for assessing motivation of an online industrial design learning. Furthermore, complexity of learners' motivation, drives and variety of motivational theories has made the assessment more complicated particularly in the context of online industrial design education. Therefore, this study tries to investigate the relation between effectiveness of an online industrial design learning platform and learners' motivation. The study followed a mixed-method approach and used survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with 200 participants who underwent an online industrial design education. The study identifies various facets of industrial design learning and its relation with students' attitudes and motivations, which in turn may improve their performance in industrial design applications.