Gamification
Adding game elements to your classes, such as leader boards, points, badges or other awards, and avatars.
Appeals to extrinsic motivation
Tends to work well and is often enjoyable for students
Competition and rules give clear structure
Can be combined with more intrinsically motivating strategies
Information itself not retained in long-term memory
Focus away from content in favour of game elements
Use of rewards and “punishments”
Already inherent in traditional system of pass and fail grading, but can be added on to by setting up barriers or fast-tracking options within your course, for instance.
Appeals to extrinsic motivation
Provides clarity through clear rules and regulations
Helps (insecure) students to compare their work and progress to that of others, which can give helpful insight
Information itself often not retained in long-term memory
Focus on reward (such as pass or high grade) rather than on course content
Use of cliff-hangers
By ending a lecture or class with “If you want to know how/what… then read/come to …” or any other form of open ending, you can invoke curiosity about the content of the next session, or get students to read the literature (if the answer is in there).
Appeals to curiosity and internalised motivation
Borrowed from media psychology (e.g. binge watching)
Plays with people’s natural curiosity
Transfers teacher’s enthusiasm unto students
AUTONOMY SUPPORT: Choices
Allowing students to choose between activities, topics or assignments within a course or a broader curriculum.
Appeals to intrinsic motivation and internalised motivation
Emphasises students’ own interests
Makes differentiation between individual students possible (for teacher)
Making your own choices stimulates feeling responsible for the result
Promotes feeling of being trusted to make choices (need for competence)
Less suitable for (some) first-year students
Can sometimes bring more prepping and/or correction work for teachers
AUTONOMY SUPPORT: Voluntariness
Having activities or course components that are entirely free of consequences if students decide not to be there/do them. Full responsibility for students’ own progress lies with the students themselves.
Appeals to intrinsic motivation
Emphasises students’ own responsibility (as adults)
Feeling of being trusted to make the right decision (need for competence)
Trains decision-making skills and self-motivation (important in workplace)
Only advisable in non-formative testing/situations
Not suitable for first-year students
Can be risky – not all students are ready for it – teachers need to actively appeal to importance of making informed decisions
TIP: Don’t be afraid to let this go wrong, initially. After this, students will tend to pick up on their responsibilities (Also see Teacher Story Annemarie Zand Scholten)
AUTONOMY SUPPORT: Putting students in charge of processes
Designing student assignments in terms of the usefulness/quality criteria of the end result, leaving room for differences between end products. The process by which/form in which the end result is created or achieved is entirely up to the students.
Appeals to intrinsic motivation and internalised motivation
Emphasises students’ own responsibility (as adults)
Feeling of being trusted to make choices (need for competence)
Trains decision-making skills, self-learning, creativity and transferring knowledge to different situations (important in workplace)
More difficult to assess work in a way that allows comparison between students
Mostly suitable for stand-alone assignments (not as part of cumulative work)
Not suitable for first-year students
TIP: Don’t be afraid to let students panic, initially. Be clear about the underlying skills (mentioned above) that you want to train, but do build in a safety net through letting them report on their plans.
AUTONOMY SUPPORT: Relatedness to student’s context
1) Leave room in assignments for students to bring in own interests (e.g. if a student likes football, allow them to learn statistics through comparing football data).
2) Where possible, give examples or relate course content to current affairs, student life, the students’ age group, etc.
Appeals to intrinsic motivation and internalised motivation
Satisfies need for relatedness
Helps students to see implications for them (personal relevance increases interest)
Helps students to discuss and act on implications for them (autonomous thought & own initiative)
Not all topics are inherently equally relatable
May take away from theory comprehension and abstract thinking skills
Relatedness and Transparency about teaching decisions
Explain the thinking behind/reasons for assignments, course components and the curriculum. Be concrete about why and how decisions are made, and which practical considerations play a role.
Appeals to intrinsic motivation, internalised motivation, and Expectancy Values
Will make students feel they are taken seriously (treated as adults)
Understanding aims of an assignment or activity gives a sense of autonomy in achieving these (internalising aims)
It may help students to better understand what is expected of them in assignments, and thus give added value to assignments
It can lead to endless discussions about the course or its assignments
ADDED BONUS FOR TEACHERS: Student feedback of your course will be a lot more helpful!
Use of humour
Self-explanatory best practice – use of metaphor, visual humour in presentations, anecdotes or absurdism in relation to the course content
Appeals to internalised motivation
Transferral of teacher’s own enthusiasm, relatedness , building rapport
Helps students to understand transferability of knowledge to different contexts (and the limitations thereof)
Also suitable for lecturing and larger groups (where it is difficult to bond with individual students)
Requires sensitivity to cultural and individual differences
Not every subject is equally suitable for humour
TIP: one specific hands-on example is to give students an assignment in which they deliberately have to do everything wrong that could possibly go wrong.
