Problem summary

The challenge of producing learning experiences that learners will genuinely engage with is getting increasingly complex. As technology allows for learning resources to be ever more closely embedded into peoples’ lives, these experiences have to compete for attention directly. If an online learning resource isn’t as engaging as a news site, the learner’s favourite chat room, doing the shopping or watching football, the close box is only a click away. At the same time, people are demanding more in terms of what will deserve their attention, and less tolerant of experiences that don’t meet their needs precisely.

Discussion

Adults learn when they want to – and generally don’t learn when they don’t want to. Various theorists, such as Malcolm Knowles, have pointed out that adults learn best when they are “self-directed”; when they have a desire to solve the real problems they face. And research over the last 20 years has shown that the need to find out what truly engages learners – how to draw them in, how to sustain their attention and how to make the learning experience more fun ­– is an important task for learning designers. We know, for example:

• There is a strong connection between positive emotional experiences and the ability to recall information;
• Intrinsic motivation – motivation provided by the task in hand – encourages people to engage in new learning experiences, and to repeat these experiences; (this is what the computer games industry relies on so heavily);
• A person with a relaxed, positive frame of mind learns more effectively.

There are a number of models of motivation from educational research, such as Victor Vroom’s Expectancy theory and John Keller’s ARCS model. Vroom’s model assumes that motivation is the result of three questions:

• If I work hard, can I the target I have been set?
• If I meet the target, will I get a reward?
• Do I want the reward I’ve been offered anyway?

John Keller suggests that learners will be motivated if the learning experience sustains a person’s attention (A), is relevant (R), supports their confidence (C) and provides satisfaction (S).

Useful as they are, neither of these models gets to the root of today’s motivational problem. Vroom’s theory appears mainly concerned with extrinsic motivation, or external reward, yet people appear to be increasingly driven to learn because it is pleasurable to do so. Keller’s ARCS model is not helpful in determining what “satisfaction” means. Both models appear to over-emphasise the conscious, cognitive aspects of motivation over emotional components. Neither distinguish between different types of motivation.

What may be helpful for learning designers are models of what may attract and engage learners, so that design decisions can be based on this understanding.

Recommendations

Advertisers and product designers have always had to fight hard for the attention of their target audience. They have had to be inquisitive, sensitive and perceptive in finding out why people engage with what they’re offering. A very useful model developed by advertising theorist Richard Vaughn looks at peoples’ engagement with things along two dimensions:

• How much personal involvement is required of the person? Does the product or service draw the person in, taking their emotional, physical or intellectual energy?
• To what extent is the product or service dealing with things that must be coped with – problem removal – and to what extent is it fulfilling longer-term wishes and desires?

Mapping these two dimensions against each other produces four different types of engagement:

There is a planning tool, based on this matrix, here.

A model developed by Pat Jordan, a product design researcher, is useful in identifying the specific features of a product – or a learning experience – that will engage a person. The model is based on the four types of pleasure originally identified by Professor Lionel Tiger:

There is a planning tool, based on the four pleasures, here.