Motivating students at a distance: The case of an international audience

Abstract

Distance education is rapidly becoming an increasingly important -and even preferredmethod of instructional delivery for many educational contexts. In spite of the many student benefits surrounding distance learning programs, however, a great number of distance learning courses suffer from extremely low student completion rates when compared to their traditional classroom-based counterparts. Although it may be tempting to point to instructional content and methods as the source of low distance learning completion rates, it can be shown that it is often motivational problems, and not the instruction itself, which lay at the root of these statistics. This article describes the motivational issues encountered by a representative group of international distance education students, as well as a specific, low-cost motivational intervention that assisted the instructors of these students to improve completion rates by providing effective and efficient motivational student support.This article is based on research focused on specific methods to increase course completion rates in a distance education program. Prior research has indicated that lack of motivation is an important cause of dropouts when students choose to study at a distance (Wolcott & Burnham, 1991; Zvacek, 1991). The results of such research speak to the need that instructional designers and instructors understand motivational principles and be able to apply validated motivation-enhancing techniques to overcome the frequent motivational issues surrounding the distance learning community.The challenge in motivating distance learners is complicated by the fact that it is generally easier to detect and correct motivational problems in conventional teaching and learning settings than in distance education settings. In the face-to-face context, 2 instructors have more frequent contact with learners, a fact which helps instructors identify and address less motivated students. In addition, the traditional learner's face-toface participation in group work as well and oftentimes frequent contact with peers can also directly enhance motivational levels in students. In distance education settings, however, student motivational problems can go unnoticed and undetected for extended periods, and neither do students directly benefit from the personal contact experienced by traditional students. As a result, distance learners may not receive the timely help that would bring about higher levels of motivation when it is truly needed most by these students.Technological advances have improved distance learning delivery, but have not necessarily addressed student motivation needs. It is indeed true that today's Internetbased communication technologies are rapidly becoming a fact of life in many parts of the world and are increasingly penetrating the learning environment, but in spite of the potential for these technologies to offer interesting, efficient and effective opportunities for learning, it should be recognized that human beings continue to have the same motivational...

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