Because motivation is a major factor in learner efficacy, I wanted to make sure that the unit integrated technology and strategies in ways that are tailored to appeal to this specific group of learners. In particular, concerns include:

 

• Students in the Arts & Communication Core Pathway Course are required to take the course but not required to pass it. As students will take 32 credits over 4 years but only need 24 to graduate, this affects attendance , participation, and effort.

• Many students lack role models at home who embody the ethos of professionalism- that the quality of your work, collaboration, and interactions over time build your reputation and your viability as a professional

• A side effect of the lack of role models is that many students do not perceive a concrete link between their efforts in the classroom and their future success. Many are apathetic even to the point of not bothering to turn in registration cards. As a result, a large number of students are simply assigned into pathway courses (like Arts & Communication) and academies not of their choosing. This has a definite effect on learner motivation and efficacy as the classroom population consists of students who are highly interested, motivated, talented, and practiced in the subject area versus students who have no interest or motivation. These two populations must somehow not only collaborate and coexist, but somehow thrive with the former helping to mentor the latter.

 

Dr. John Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation is an excellent tool for planning for these factors and designing instruction (and technology implementation) to motivate students. It gives tools for analyzing the motivational characteristics of a population of learners and designing motivational strategies based on this analysis. The brilliance of the ARCS Model is that it synthesizes (simplifies) motivational concepts and characteristics into four dimensions- attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. Keller's original ARCS Model calls for a ten step design process for maximizing motivation. However, Suzuki and Keller 1996 developed a simplified approach to ensure that classroom teachers focused on key motivational characteristics of the learners, the content to be taught, and the hardware and software to be used. Teachers can then identify this information and strategize tactics to deal with anticipated motivational problems. As I worked through the Understanding By Design unit planning process, this ARCS design process seemed a perfect fit as a way to "tailor" the adoption of technology so that it enhances unit objectives and piques learner motivation.

 

These concepts are well explained in this paper presented by Dr. Keller: