Boost Motivation with Universal Design for Learning

UDL and motivation

“Learners differ markedly in what sparks their motivation and enthusiasm for learning.”

CAST.org

Our learners vary in background, physical abilities, native language, marital status, past and present experiences, employment status, parental status, age…the list goes on. The idea of designing a course that motivates everyone despite how different individuals in a class might be seems overwhelming. What all learners do have in common, however, is that their identity and values, their self-concept, and their sense of belonging play a huge role in what motivates them. (To learn more, check out some current theories of motivation including the Expectancy-Value theory, the attribution theory, and self-determination theory.)   

This UDL Guideline emphasizes recognizing what makes a learner unique in the way they engage with and approach learning, and widening the path to engagement by designing multiple means of engagement.  This article will dive into ways you can ensure that there is more than one path to engagement in your coursework, which means that more learners will find something that motivates them.

Consider the importance of learner choice and autonomy to motivation

Take a moment to view this Calvin and Hobbes comic strip from October 1989 . In this scene, Calvin’s dad is concerned about Calvin’s report card, and Calvin explains that he “does not like school.” His dad counters that Calvin seems to like to read and learn, as evidenced by his voraciously consuming books about dinosaurs. Calvin counters that, in school, they aren’t reading about dinosaurs! Clearly Calvin understands that when he has a choice about what he’s reading, reading and learning can be fun.

Learner autonomy is about giving learners more choice and control over what they do in a course so they are more likely to find alignment between the learning task and what matters or appeals to them. While learners cannot and should not have choice over the learning objectives for a course, they can be given opportunities to choose how they achieve them. In the Calvin and Hobbes example, if the learning objective is to improve reading skills or comprehension, then allowing Calvin to choose the topic he reads about could make him more motivated and successful, especially since he is clearly capable of doing it when he is interested.

Ways you might increase learner choice and autonomy

Let learners choose content and/or context.

If your learning objectives relate to a particular skill that can be applied in a variety of contexts or practiced using a variety of content (like Calvin in the example above), let learners choose the content or context that interests them and they’ll be more engaged and motivated. You might offer several options of books for a book report, allow them to choose their own topic for a paper, or let them select from a variety of case studies that relate to a particular problem.

The Choice activity in Moodle can be helpful here, particularly if you are wanting to form small groups based on a choice or interest. Read more about the Choice tool and how you might use it at the Moodle docs page for the choice activity.

Let learners choose the types of assignments they complete and the difficulty level they aim for.

Hanewicz et al. (2017) suggest including a “menu” of assignments or assessments which learners select from. Interestingly, in this study the researchers found that more than 30% of learners completed more assignments than were required to earn an “A.” With this approach, be sure to design the “menu” in a way that learners must choose assignments and/or assessments for every learning objective. You might consider that learners who select less challenging assignments need to complete more of them to earn an A. In a Faculty Focus article Michele Poulos suggests Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Harnessing Assignment Menus for Student Choice in Learning.

Let learners choose authoring and/or creation tools, or multimedia format to complete an assignment.

If you can’t provide choices on the assignment or content, maybe you can let them choose how to create their submission. Could they choose to demonstrate their mastery through either a paper, presentation, video or infographic? Can you accept different file formats or authoring tools like Google Docs or Word, Slides or PowerPoint?

Let them have a say in deadlines or timelines.

You might allow learners to choose how they sequence pieces of an assignment, or when their final due date is. Maybe you provide a “best by” date but offer flexibility in the hard deadline. This idea also supports UDL principles related to helping learners self-regulate and set goals.

The Moodle Roadmap Plugin is one example of a tool that employs this principle. The Roadmap indicates when learners complete an assignment, and if it’s completed by the expected date and time, the roadmap gives them an extra little star. If you are interested in learning more about Roadmap, you can refer to the Overview of the Roadmap Plugin.

Customize learning through adaptive and personalized pathways.

Learners are more likely to be motivated to complete tasks that are appropriate for their level of mastery of the topic. If they have fully achieved the learning objective associated with a task, they may be bored by it. If they are struggling with background knowledge necessary for the task, they might feel overwhelmed.

At NC State there are ways that instructors can customize learning experiences using our digital learning tools. For instance,

• Read the Teaching Resources Article on Customizing Learning Experiences for learners
• Register for the workshops:
  • Create Custom Learning Experiences for learners: Overview
  • Create Custom Learning Experiences for learners: Moodle Activity Completion & Restricting Access
• Watch the workshop recording for Moodle Activity Completion and Restricting Access

Consider the importance of a sense of belonging to motivation

Belonging is defined by Lewis et al. (2016) as “the extent to which individuals feel like a valued, accepted and legitimate member in their academic domain.” Zumbrunn et al. (2014) found that supportive classroom environments lead to enhanced feelings of belonging, which increased learner motivation and achievement. Indeed, the importance of emotional engagement for online teaching effectiveness has been documented. 

If a learner does not feel that a course or classroom is a welcoming space, they will find it harder to be motivated and to engage emotionally. We don’t have to know everything about our learners’ identities or customize our teaching. The strategies here focus on building trust within the classroom, allowing learner voices and experiences to enrich the learning environment, and monitoring content for possible threats or distractions or messages that might exclude.

Strategies to foster a sense of belonging

Work intentionally to build a learning community.

State at the beginning of your course that “All learners belong here. All learners’ voices and experiences are valuable.” Ask for learners to give you anonymous feedback if they experience a lack of belonging based on something that went on in your class, and address what they share. Make it right if you can.

Encourage showing up as one’s authentic self (known as social presence) to the classroom. Feeling comfortable showing up as one’s authentic self is a key part of having a sense of belonging. By modeling this and giving learners opportunities to get to know each other more fully, community members will discover common interests and experiences and create connections with each other. If your course is fully online, you can achieve this through an introductory forum, Yellowdig posts or through small group discussions or breakout rooms in Zoom. Learn more by reading the Overview of Yellowdig.

Check the language in your syllabus and other communication to ensure it is inclusive of all people and reflects respectful ways to speak about different groups of people. See Educause’s Inclusive Language Guide and NC State’s inclusive language guidelines for some tips.

Find more ways to foster community at this Teaching Resources Page on Engagement in Synchronous and Asynchronous Classrooms.

Include a variety sources of and perspectives on course topics

Ensure that some learners don’t have to stretch to see themselves as experts in your field. Ensure your content, images and examples do not further historical patterns or assumptions that leave some learners out.

If course material or concepts have an impact on different parts of the population or certain groups of people more than others, consider highlighting those societal and environmental implications (without calling out particular learners’ identities) so that learners in those groups feel their experiences and concerns are recognized.

Provide ways that learners can express themselves and bring in their own experiences and perspectives to enrich the learning environment. One particularly useful tool for this is Yellowdig, a platform for learner-driven discussion and sharing designed to build a learning community. Learn more by reading the Overview of Yellowdig.

Consider what helps learners to sustain effort

Once you’ve laid the groundwork to promote learner motivation, learners must stay focused on achieving the objectives for the course and sustain effort when learning is difficult.

Strategies to help learners sustain effort

Normalize struggle and even failure as a part of the journey toward mastery.

Be authentic and share your personal experiences or academic journey to show that successful people can struggle, fail, change course, and still be successful. Letting students know that you care about their success increases their emotional engagement within the course (Fanshawe et al, 2020).

Provide feedback oriented toward growth and eventual mastery rather than simply evaluating performance. Guide learners to successful long-term habits by emphasizing effort, practice, and improvement. Emphasize the goal of higher-order thinking skills within your discipline. Smith and Darvas (2017) found that higher-order thinking skills like evaluating and creating are intrinsically motivating.

• Suggest helpful strategies or support and encourage learners to use them.
• Acknowledge learners’ successes and efforts to grow and be successful.
• Provide feedback that is frequent, timely, specific, and substantive.

To learn more, visit DELTA’s Teaching Resources Page on Providing Effective Feedback

Discuss how what learners achieve now will help them reach their future goals.

CAST.org states, “To support sustained effort and persistence, it is essential for learners to be clear on the goal and to have space to explore how the goal is meaningful to their own lives and communities.” (from Consideration 8.1 at CAST.org)

Use authentic examples, cases and scenarios. Provide opportunities to work with real clients or organizations related to their career goals. View a video about relevance that features Irvin, a learner who did not see the value of STEM in the classroom, but now uses it every day. (YouTube video, 2 min 44 sec)

Ask your learners to monitor their own learning.

Allow multiple attempts on quizzes so that they can check their learning without fear of damaging their grade. See the Moodle Doc on the Quiz activity.

Launch low-stakes questions in Top Hat, WooClap or Zoom during synchronous class sessions. See DELTA’s Instructional Tools page on Top Hat. Use polling in Zoom. See Zoom’s knowledge base article on advanced polling and quizzing

Allow learners to set their own achievement goals, and facilitate them creating milestones for larger tasks or projects.

The Moodle Roadmap Plugin is one example of a tool that can help. It can help learners visualize their progress through a learning cycle or module in your Moodle course. If you are interested in learning more about Roadmap, you can refer to the Overview of the Roadmap Plugin.

Consider offering contract grading where learners decide on the grade they want to achieve in your course and then select the assignments that will earn them that grade. Read more about this idea in Making the Pitch for Contract Grading from Old Dominion University.

Conclusion

As you work to boost motivation in your course with Universal Design for Learning, keep in mind that it’s not necessary for you to overhaul your entire course in order to apply any UDL principle or guideline. In many cases, it’s a matter of adding things or modifying things in your already-designed course. You might consider, for this guideline, which topics, activities, assessments or assignments some learners seem to struggle to engage with or sustain effort on, and start there.

References

• Fanshawe, M., Burke, K., Tualaulelei, E., & Cameron, C. (2020, August 31). Creating emotional engagement in online learning. EDUCAUSE Review.
• Hanewicz, Cheryl & Platt, Angela & Arendt, Anne. (2017). Creating a learner-centered teaching environment using student choice in assignments. Distance Education, 38, 1-15.
• Lewis, K. L., Stout, J. G., Pollock, S. J., Finkelstein, N. D., & Ito, T. A. (2016). Fitting in or opting out: A review of key social-psychological factors influencing a sense of belonging for women in physics. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 12(2), 020110.
• Smith, V. D., & Darvas, J. W. (2017). Encouraging student autonomy through higher order thinking skills. Journal of Instructional Research, 6, 29–34.
• Zumbrunn, S., McKim, C., Buhs, E., & Hawley, L. R. (2014). Support, belonging, motivation, and engagement in the college classroom: a mixed method study. Instructional Science, 42(5), 661–684. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43575253