1. Running Head: UNIT FIVE 1
Unit Five: Dr. Mary Learns a New System
Motivationist’s Perspective
Lauren Fowler-Carter
University of Houston-Clear Lake

2. UNIT FIVE 2
Unit Five: Dr. Mary Learns a New System
Motivationist’s Perspective
For 23 years, Dr. Mary Thomas and her staff have been keeping their office and patient
medical records in paper form. Mary has a computer of her own that her children bought her for
her 60th birthday, but she rarely uses the computer. She attempted to take a computer class at a
local community center, but after three one-hour lessons, Dr. Mary’s frustrations got the best of
her and she never was motivated enough to return for more lessons.
Being a family doctor, months later Dr. Mary decided that it may be time to transfer her
paper medical records into electronic format. With the new developments in technology, Dr.
Mary felt motivated enough to determine that this would be the best decision to make for her
business. Updating to a new system would allow obtainment of records quicker and save space in
the office, especially since less space is available for the paper medical records. During the
transfer to electronic records, Dr. Mary feels it would be best to keep the current paper medical
records just in case the attempt to handle business electronically fails.
The Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software is installed on all of the computers, but
Dr. Mary misses a large chunk of the training on the software. Since her staff received the full
training, Dr. Mary now relies on them to teach her how to use the new electronic system. Not
being a fan of computers or learning this new technology, Dr. Mary’s staff begins teaching her
the new system.
Everyday since the new EMR system was implemented, Dr. Mary had a hard time
understanding how the software worked. She remembered some of the skills from the three hours
of lessons that she received some months ago, but she was still struggling with the system. She
would begin each work day motivated to learn and with optimism that she will master the new
technology in her office. As the hours in the day go by, Dr. Mary first depends on her staff to
help her enter the patient information into the computer. Feeling confident, Dr. Mary would
attempt to use the system with the assistance of her staff. At first she had trouble navigating
through the EMR and secretly used paper records after giving up for the moment and not
wanting to bother her staff for help. As the days passed, and Dr. Mary’s staff continued to help
and motivate her, she is now able to navigate and execute tasks on the EMR with no assistance.
Initial Focus Questions & Answers
1) What was the role of the learner in this story?
- One of the roles for Dr. Mary, the learner, was to calibrate learning efforts with
results.
2) What motivated Dr. Mary to learn in this story?
- Dr. Mary was motivated to switch to the new EMR system, because it would allow
access to records quicker, save space in the office, and keep her business up-to-date.
3) Did Dr. Mary have high self-efficacy about learning the new system?
- Not necessarily. Dr. Mary came into this learning situation with some self doubt.

3. UNIT FIVE 3
4) What motivational challenges did Dr. Mary face in this story?
- The first challenge presented in the story was that Dr. Mary became unmotivated in
the computer class she was taking because she was having difficulty; so she did not
return to the class. Another motivational challenge was that Dr. Mary was having a
hard time understanding how the software worked. In the beginning of learning, she
would become unmotivated and revert back to the use of paper records.
5) What theorist proposed the concept of the ‘theory of self-efficacy’?
- Bandura’s was the theorist that came up the self-efficacy theory.
6) What was the role of the instructor in this story?
- Dr. Mary’s staff’s role in the learning was to help and motivate Dr. Mary as she
learned the new system.
7) What would have happened if Dr. Mary remained unmotivated during the whole story?
- If Dr. Mary remained unmotivated throughout the whole story, two things could have
happened. One, Dr. Mary would continue to try and learn the system at the beginning
of the day, and as the day goes on, she would use the paper system. Two, Dr. Mary
would get so frustrated and unmotivated to learn, that she would have the whole
office return back to paper medical records, therefore not achieving the desired
outcome of learning the new EMR system.