Boost Motivation with Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) recognizes that variability exists in student populations along many spectra, and guides the design of learning experiences that present as few barriers to success as possible. To learn more about the concept of Universal Design for Learning, see the Teaching Resources Page: Reaching All Students with Universal Design for Learning.

This article addresses one of the UDL Guidelines from CAST.org, the leading proponent of Universal Design for Learning. The guideline covered by this article is “Design Multiple Means of Engagement.” View all the UDL Guidelines from CAST.

Boost Motivation with Universal Design for Learning

UDL and motivation

One way in which designing instruction with UDL can support student learning is to remove barriers to engagement and motivation. Many theories of learner motivation exist, including the Expectancy – Value – Cost model, ARCS Model of Instructional Design, and Self-Determination theory. These theories are well-summarized by Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching. Some common themes from these theories that relate to the UDL framework include the importance of choice and autonomy, inclusion and belonging and support for sustained effort. Let’s examine each of these ideas, how it’s important for motivation and engagement, and ways to incorporate it into your course.

Keep in mind that it’s most likely 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, considering which topics, activities, assessments or assignments students seem to struggle to engage with or sustain effort on, and start there.

Give learners choices

Take 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 students more choice and control over what they do in the course. 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 ‘improve reading comprehension’ or something similar, then allowing Calvin to read something he’s interested in 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 them choose the challenge level of an activity or assignment, or the types of assignments they complete.

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

Contract grading is another way to provide learner choice. Here, students decide on the grade they want to achieve first, 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.

Let them 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, let students choose what 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 create small groups based on a choice. Read more about the Choice tool and how you might use it at the Moodle docs page for the choice activity.

Let them 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 students self-regulate and set goals.

The Moodle Roadmap Plugin is one example of a tool that employs this principles. The Roadmap indicates when students 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 for students through adaptive and personalized pathways.

For some ideas of ways to customize students learning,

Ensure learners’ feel they belong

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 student motivation, achievement and engagement.

Our classrooms are diverse. Students vary in background, ethnicity, gender identity and sex, disability status, native language, marital status, past and present trauma, employment status, parental status, age…the list goes on. If a student does not feel that a course or classroom is a welcoming space to people like them, they will find it harder to be motivated and to engage. We don’t have to know everything about our students’ identities or customize our teaching…applying this principle is more about building trust within the classroom, allowing student voices and experiences to enrich the learning environment, and monitoring content for possible threats or distractions or messages that might be non-inclusive.

Strategies to enhance belonging and be more inclusive

Connect more with your students on an authentic, human level.

Be authentic and share you personal experiences or academic journey. Show that successful people (a) can struggle and (b) have lives outside of the classroom. Find examples and more tips on the Teaching Resources Page for Humanizing Your Online Course.

Review the symbols, images, language and examples you use

Ensure that all students see themselves, or people like them, represented and welcomed in your course. Ensure your content, images, and examples do not further stereotypes of who does this work that leaves some students out.

  • Check the language in your syllabus and other communication to ensure it is inclusive of all people and reflects the preferred language that relates to some identities. See Educause’s Inclusive Language Guide and NC State’s inclusive language guidelines for some tips.
  • If course material or concepts have historical or current disparate impact on different parts of the population or certain groups of people, consider highlighting those societal and environmental implications (without calling out particular students’ identities) so that students in those groups to feel their experiences are heard.
  • Provide ways that students can express themselves and bring in their own experiences to enrich the learning environment. One particularly useful tool for this is Yellowdig, a platform for student-driven discussion and sharing designed to build a learning community. Learn more by reading the Overview of Yellowdig.

Explicitly set and enforce expectations for interactions and classroom community.

  • State at the beginning of your course that “All students belong here. All students’ voices and experiences are valuable.”
  • Give students a chance to get to know each other, perhaps through an introductory forum or Yellowdig post and through small group discussions or breakout rooms in Zoom.
  • Ask for students 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.

Help learners sustain effort

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

Strategies to help learners sustain effort

Create authentic activities and highlight real-world connections.

CAST.org states, “Individuals are engaged by content and activities that are relevant and valuable to their interests, goals, and communities. This does not necessarily mean the situation has to be equivalent to real life, as fiction can be just as engaging to learners as non-fiction. It does, however, have to be relevant and authentic to learners’ individual and/or community goals and the instructional goals. Individuals are rarely interested in information and activities that have no relevance or value…To recruit all learners equally, it is critical to provide options that optimize what is relevant, valuable, and meaningful to the learner.” (from Checkpoint 7.2 at CAST.org)

  • Show learners how the lessons they complete now will help them reach their future goals.
  • 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)

Examine how your expectations influence motivation.

If students know that the most they will be able to achieve by putting in their best effort in your course is to be able to remember facts or understand concepts, they are less likely to be interested or motivated to learn. Smith and Darvas (2017) found that higher-order thinking skills like evaluating and creating are intrinsically motivating.

Ask your students to set and track their own learning goals.

Provide mastery-oriented feedback.

Mastery-oriented feedback is focused on guiding students to successful long-term habits by emphasizing effort, practice, and improvement.

References

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