Faculty and advisers are reporting that students are struggling to stay motivated and that they would benefit from support in developing a feeling of learning as they complete their required work. This echoes the results of the SERU survey administered to UO students in June, in which 75.4% of students reported a lack of motivation for remote and online learning, and 61.3% reported an inability to learn in an online format. Here we present some ideas for helping students develop a feeling of learning and for enhancing motivation. Some of the ideas are actionable now, as we approach the end of the term, others you might consider incorporating into your winter term courses.   

Feeling of Learning 

Research shows (Deslauriers et al, 2019) that students feel they learn more in passive learning environments like lecture classes than active ones, despite actually learning more in the active learning environment. Remote and online courses may involve less passive lecture and require more active, independent, self-managed work than some face-to-face classes. This is a good thing, but it means that the students may not have as strong a feeling of learning or accomplishment, which could negatively affect motivation. So it can be useful to design assignments to highlight how far students have come. Before they can develop an accurate sense of how much they have learned in a lesson or course, students need to monitor and reflect on their progress. Doing so is part of metacognition, the act of assessing one’s learning and the effectiveness of the strategies used in the learning process. You can find more information and ideas about encouraging metacognition and reflection at the close of the term in our post on Powerful Endings.  

Consider addressing directly the possible disconnect between feeling of learning and actual learning, especially in environments requiring students to develop their own knowledge. Take a few minutes of class time or make a short video in which you talk about the problem, discuss the strategies you’ll be using to mitigate it, and suggest they try some of the activities outlined below. Emphasize the important role metacognition plays in feeling of learning and staying motivated. 

If you have synchronous class meetings, it may be helpful to give students tasks that mitigate Zoom fatigue by directing their attention away from the screen. For example, they could do a task on paper and then come back to share their ideas with the class. In your discussion, highlight how much students have learned. 

Below are some activities you might try to promote awareness of learning. When you assign them, be sure to ask students explicitly to think about how much they have learned. 

As this term winds down, you could try
  • Formative assessment to emphasize accomplishment. Formative assessments are typically designed to help students and faculty identify knowledge gaps so they know where to focus further efforts. Add to their utility by tweaking the language to highlight how much students have already succeeded in learning. Some activities useful in this context:
    • Concept map. Students create a diagram showing the ideas and concepts relevant to a topic and how they are related.  
    • Minute paper. Faculty pose a question or give another short writing prompt designed to assess student thinking on a topic. Students write for one minute. 
    • Muddiest point. Students sift through newly-acquired knowledge and identify the piece that most needs further attention and clarification. Students can then attempt to shore up their knowledge independently and faculty can look for patterns in the class’ responses to see if particular points should be given more whole-class attention. 
    • Three-point summary: Students list and give a short description of the three main points of the lesson. 
    • Reflections. Students write or create audio or video reflections. Give prompts specifically designed to make students take a bird’s-eye view of the class experience and what they have learned. TEP’s Powerful Endings post has more information about end-of-term reflections. 
    • Crowd-sourced study guide. Each student makes a rough draft of the study guide on their own including course topics they think are important, without using notes. Then they collaborate on a document together. Depending on the class size, you might want to divide the class into smaller groups to make sure each student feels they can make valuable contributions. 
As you plan for next term, consider incorporating
  • Struggle followed by success. Students develop an awareness of learning if they first struggle with a task, then accomplish it successfully.  
    • Pre-test/post-test. Assess students’ prior knowledge with a pre-test at the beginning of a unit, then give a similar assessment at the end.  Explicitly ask students to reflect on their improvement. 
    • Productive failure.  Before students engage with lessons on a topic, have them attempt a problem they will not yet have the knowledge to solve. The problem should be (a) challenging enough to engage the learner in exploration, (b) allow multiple solution approaches, and (c) activate prior knowledge. Research shows that students who work on ill-defined problems before exposure to lessons learn more effectively than ones who just do the lessons. Revisiting the problem after the lesson can help students realize how much they have learned. More detail about designing for productive failure can be found in Kapur & Bielaczyc (2014). 
  • Other formative assessments. In addition to those discussed above, you might try these. 
    • Online discussions. Students post a response to a prompt before they can see their peers’ contributions, then they respond to several other students’ posts.  This is a great way for students to interact with the content and each other. The following link describes one KWL (what you Know, what you Want to know, and what you Learned) activity (Ogle, 1986) (Steele and Dyer, 2014): Online Discussion Forums as Assessment Tools 
    • Problem explanation: Students explain the reasoning behind each step in a problem solution.  This could be done in writing, in an audio or video clip, or to a partner. See also the entries on study groups and peer instruction below. 
    • Wrapper/Post-Exam Autopsy. Activities in which students evaluate their performance on summative assessments such as quizzes, exams, projects, and papers to identify areas for improvement. They do not usually place emphasis on students’ positive achievements, but small changes to the language can celebrate students’ successful learning before picking out areas needing improvement. 
    • Study groups. Social interactions are an important part of the learning process (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 1999). Let students know that you encourage them to study together and consider facilitating study group formation (Geerling, Thomas, & Wooten, 2020) in remote and online classes where it is harder for students to make connections with their peers. Study group meetings could be optional or required and you could suggest topics and activities for study group meetings or let students decide how to structure them. 
    • Peer instruction. Students explain concepts to peers or demonstrate how to solve problems. The peers ask clarifying questions. This could be done either as a formal class activity or as part of a study group. 
    • Weekly reflections. Each week, have students reflect on what they have learned and the work they did to accomplish the learning.  Ask students to evaluate and refine their learning strategies and study tactics.  

Enhancing Motivation 

Increasing students’ sense that they are learning is likely to reduce burnout and boost motivation significantly. In addition, you can emphasize the material’s relevance to students’ interests, other courses, and their intended careers. You can also support students’ perceived ability to learn, build relationships with and between students, and allow students a measure of control over their learning in class. For more detail on these strategies and ideas on how to implement them, visit our blog post on the Remote UO Survey on Academic Obstacles to Remote Learning. 

Works cited

Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(39), 19251-19257.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The internet and higher education, 2(2-3), 87-105.  

Geerling, W., Thomas, N., & Wooten, J. (2020). Facilitating Student Connections and Study Partners During Periods of Remote and Online Learning. Available at SSRN 3692086. 

Kapur, M., & Bielaczyc, K. (2012). Designing for productive failure. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21(1), 45-83. 

Ogle, D. M. (1986). KWL: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. The reading teacher, 39(6), 564-570. 

Steele, J., & Dyer, T. (2014). Use of KWLs in the Online Classroom as It Correlates to Increased Participation. Journal of Instructional Research, 3, 8-14.