If you read my first blog on Content Strategy this year, I talked about the three components that help to define a content strategy for learning, what your business needs, what your learners need, and what your content can do. In this blog, I am going to dig into learners’ needs and how addressing their basic psychological needs can help create a better learning experience.
According to a theory of motivation, called self-determination theory (SDT), developed by Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, all people have three basic psychological needs that influence what they decide to do with their time, autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Autonomy means people have control over what they do with their lives and can make choices that align with their priorities. Competence is a person’s ability to find success with a given skill. Relatedness is the need for people to feel connected to and interact with others. This theory assumes that inherent in human nature is the predisposition to be curious about one's environment and interested in learning and developing one's knowledge.
Research on SDT suggests that both intrinsic motivation and autonomous types of extrinsic motivation increase engagement and facilitate optimal learning. Evidence also suggests that support of learners' basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness promotes their persistence in learning, academic performance, and well-being.
Page BreakHow does each facet factor into learning and what can you do with your content to ensure you are supporting your learners’ basic psychological needs? Keep reading to learn more.
Autonomy - Learning content that incorporates autonomy lets learners take control of their educational experience. A couple of ways you can give your learners more autonomy is to offer online learning and give the learners more control over their experiences. Online learning, also known as eLearning or virtual learning is a form of independent study, even if an institution delivers it, and promotes self-directed learning due to its own nature.
Research has shown that giving students control over learning modes, settings and materials has successfully promoted learners’ autonomy. Here are some ideas on how to give learners more control; Ask your students to help shape discussion requirements; Offer choice in discussion prompts; Let students choose how to reply; Give students an option between synchronous and asynchronous discussions, and Offer alternatives to online discussions.
Greater autonomy implies greater maturity, greater motivation, and greater self-discipline. These approaches are extremely important because they allow the learner to be at the center of their learning with active participation in constructing their own knowledge.
Competence Learning content that allows learners to feel competent and have a sense of self-efficacy can be highly motivating. Here are some ways you can instill a sense of competence in your learners.
For longer courses consider the selective release of the content, hiding elements of the course from learners until they are needed. This can help to prevent a feeling of being overwhelmed by a large course with a lot of content. Providing a checklist for students to track and gauge progress is another way to prevent them from feeling overwhelmed.
Having students reflect on their performance in previous modules and articulate goals for improvement at the start of each new module allows them to acknowledge success and state their goals, reinforcing self-regulation skills. Providing low-stakes assignments showing learners early success can help them to feel competent. Finally, learners need prompt feedback on their progress, and this feedback can come in a variety of ways.
Relatedness Learning content that allows learners to feel a connection to other learners fosters motivation. Research has shown that online learners often report a lack of a sense of belonging and community during the online learning experience. How can we increase the opportunity for connection to other learners?
Here are some strategies to think about incorporating into learning to foster a sense of relatedness or belonging for learners. The formation of a community of learners, including the use of ice breakers and creating forums or student-only spaces can allow students to connect before learning takes place. Embedding collaboration into course activities and utilizing virtual, synchronous classrooms can create a sense of community between students during learning. Other strategies mentioned above, like timely feedback, can create a sense of connection to the instructor. Continued post-learning collaboration can be continued via forums or chat groups in apps such as WhatsApp where both students and instructors can participate.
Learning experiences that can check the boxes on all three facets of SDT, autonomy, competence, and relatedness have the potential to be hugely impactful and motivating to students, leading to higher engagement and learner satisfaction. What are other strategies we can employ to further engage our students and create motivation through autonomy, competence, and relatedness?
