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Boost Motivation with Universal Design for Learning

This article will explains that the wider the path to engagement in your course, the more learners will find something that motivates them.

In this article:

UDL and motivation

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can help you design learning experiences with as few obstacles to success as possible. One UDL Guideline emphasizes recognizing what makes a learner unique in the way they engage with and approach learning. Then, you can widen the path to engagement so that more learners can find their way.   

The importance of learner choice and agency

In a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip from October 1989, 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. Providing students with flexibility and choices in their coursework can enhance engagement. While the learning objectives for a course stay fixed, students might choose how they achieve them or demonstrate 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.

How you might give learners options

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. 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.

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

When Hanewicz et al. (2017) created a “menu” of assignments or assessments for learners to select from, they found that more than 30% of learners completed assignments beyond what was 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. For more insight, read the Faculty Focus article Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Harnessing Assignment Menus for Student Choice in Learning.

Let learners choose the authoring and/or creation tool or the multimedia format they use to create an assignment.

Could learners choose to demonstrate their mastery through a paper, presentation, video or infographic? Can you accept different file formats or authoring tools like Google Docs or Word, Slides or PowerPoint?

Provide flexibility in deadlines or timelines.

Can you allow learners to choose how they sequence pieces of an assignment, or when their final due date is? Maybe you can 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.

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,

The importance of a sense of belonging

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

You don’t need to know every detail about your students’ background or customize our teaching to create a sense of belonging for all. Rather, work to build trust within the classroom, allow learner voices and experiences to enrich the learning environment, and monitor for messages that might negatively impact belonging.

How you might foster a sense of belonging

Work intentionally to build a learning community.

State early on and clearly: “All learners belong here. All learners’ voices and experiences are valuable.” Back this up by encouraging learners to show up as their authentic selves (known as social presence) in the course. By modeling authenticity and by giving learners opportunities to get to know each other more fully, common interests and experiences will emerge allowing connection. Practical suggestions for an online course include an introductory forum, Yellowdig posts or small group discussions.

Monitor the language in your course communications for cultural references that might only speak to some members of the class, or other implied assumptions about who is there and who belongs. See Educause’s Inclusive Language Guide and NC State’s inclusive language guidelines for some tips.

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

Include a multiple sources and perspectives on course topics

Don’t require some learners to 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.

The long haul: sustaining 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.

How you might 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 frequent, timely and substantive feedback oriented toward growth and eventual mastery rather than simply evaluating performance. Suggest helpful strategies or support and encourage learners to use them. Smith and Darvas (2017) found that higher-order thinking skills like evaluating and creating are intrinsically motivating.

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. Emphasize the goal of higher-order thinking skills within your discipline. Provide opportunities to work with real clients or organizations related to their career goals. View a video about relevance that features 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. Launch low-stakes questions during lectures using classroom response software to help learners measure their understanding.

Allow learners to practice setting goals.

Whether for an entire course or just for one assessment or assignment, ask students to articulate their own personal goals for the work. When assigning a larger project, work together to create a timeline and milestones that learners agree makes sense.

Ready to go all in? 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.

Workshop Information

Boost Motivation with Universal Design for Learning

If no workshops are available, you can request an instructional consultation from LearnTech about this topic.

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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
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