This document discusses strategies for motivating online learners and reducing attrition. It outlines common causes of attrition such as lack of time, support, or motivation. It then provides recommendations for keeping learners engaged through clear course design, meaningful materials, learner support, and intrinsic motivation. Gagne's nine events of instruction are also summarized as an instructional design model for online learning, including gaining attention, stating objectives, stimulating recall, presenting content, and assessing performance.

1. Planning & Designing
Flexible Learning
Mazlan Hasan

2. Mazlan Who?

3. Learner Support Issues
?

4. Learner Support Issues

5. Attrition
Common causes...
Satisfaction and dissatisfaction among eLearners
Strategies to decrease attrition and improve satisfaction

6. Why Online Learners Drop Out
Students don't have enough time
Lack of management oversight
Lack of motivation
Problems with technology
Lack of student support
Individual learning preferences
Poorly designed course
Substandard/inexperienced instructors...

7. Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
Online students are more likely Extrinsic motivation is by
to be intrinsically motivated if external forces and structures
they: such as increases in pay for
course credit and rewards for
are interested in the topic program completion
see the value in course Reward students who meet
content and activities learning goals with good
grades
believe that their energies Praise students who complete
impact whether they activities and discussions
succeed Encourage students to
feel like they are in control provide kudos for their
of their own learning classmates

8. Motivate through Ongoing
Encouragement
Establish ongoing communication with your class. How?
Make course materials relevant to their lives.
Use humor and light-hearted approaches to increase
comfort
Remind students they're saving time by not traveling to a
face-to-face class
Ask students to enjoy the freedom of online courses
Provide reminders about the schedule and praise students
for staying on schedule
Encourage students to establish a personal reward system

9. Motivate through Course
Clarity
Clearly state course requirements with emphasis on learner
control over success
Provide clear assignments and assessments
Provide specific, quick, feedback, encouragement, and
grading
Identify specific due dates. Some students need to structure
of due dates motivating.
Be flexible enough to accommodate emergencies and
specific problems
Provide learner support through scaffolding assignments
Encourage student questioning and sharing of concerns

10. Motivate through Meaningful
Materials
Place emphasis on activities that will meet course goals and
aren't perceived as "busy work"
Provide varied real-world examples
Use authentic examples, timely resources, and real-world
data that promote interest and practicality
Provide multiple channels of communication (i.e., text,
graphics, audio, video) so learners have choice in learning
Personalize activities and build in flexibility to meet
individual needs

11. Motivate through Learner
Engagement
Appeal to student life experiences
Apply course content to real-world situations
Provide students with choices in terms of topics
Allow students varied ways to share their understandings
(i.e., text, visual, audio)
Require ongoing participation through the course
Incorporate interactive features that involve learners in
practice, reflective thinking, and problem-solving.

12. 5-Stage Model
http://alturl.com/3tsgd

13. Gagne's 9 events of Instruction
1. Gaining attention
2. Stating the objective
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning
4. Presenting the stimulus
5. Providing learning guidance
6. Eliciting performance
7. Providing feedback
8. Assessing performance
9. Enhancing retention and transfer

14. Gaining attention
In order for any learning to take place, you must first capture
the attention of the student. A multimedia program that
begins with an animated title screen sequence accompanied
by sound effects or music startles the senses with auditory or
visual stimuli. An even better way to capture students'
attention is to start each lesson with a thought-provoking
question or interesting fact. Curiosity motivates students to
learn.

15. Inform learners of objectives
Early in each lesson students should encounter a list of
learning objectives. This initiates the internal process of
expectancy and helps motivate the learner to complete the
lesson. These objectives should form the basis for assessment
and possible certification as well. Typically, learning
objectives are presented in the form of "Upon completing this
lesson you will be able to. . . ." The phrasing of the objectives
themselves will be covered under Robert Mager's
contributions later in this chapter.

16. Stimulate recall of prior learning
Associating new information with prior knowledge can
facilitate the learning process. It is easier for learners to
encode and store information in long-term memory when
there are links to personal experience and knowledge. A
simple way to stimulate recall is to ask questions about
previous experiences, an understanding of previous concepts,
or a body of content.

17. Present the content
This event of instruction is where the new content is actually
presented to the learner. Content should be chunked and
organized meaningfully, and typically is explained and then
demonstrated. To appeal to different learning modalities, a
variety of media should be used if possible, including text,
graphics, audio narration, and video.

18. Provide "learning guidance"
To help learners encode information for long-term storage,
additional guidance should be provided along with the
presentation of new content. Guidance strategies include the
use of examples, non-examples, case studies, graphical
representations, mnemonics, and analogies.

19. Elicit performance
In this event of instruction, the learner is required to practice
the new skill or behavior. Eliciting performance provides an
opportunity for learners to confirm their correct
understanding, and the repetition further increases the
likelihood of retention.

20. Provide feedback
As learners practice new behavior it is important to provide
specific and immediate feedback of their performance. Unlike
questions in a post-test, exercises within tutorials should be
used for comprehension and encoding purposes, not for
formal scoring. Additional guidance and answers provided at
this stage are called formative feedback.

21. Assess performance
Upon completing instructional modules, students should be
given the opportunity to take (or be required to take) a post-
test or final assessment. This assessment should be completed
without the ability to receive additional coaching, feedback,
or hints. Mastery of material, or certification, is typically
granted after achieving a certain score or percent correct. A
commonly accepted level of mastery is 80% to 90% correct.

22. Enhance retention and transfer
Determining whether or not the skills learned from a training
program are ever applied back on the job often remains a mystery
to training managers
Effective training programs have a "performance" focus,
incorporating design and media that facilitate retention and
transfer to the job. The repetition of learned concepts is a tried
and true means of aiding retention, although often disliked by
students. (There was a reason for writing spelling words ten times
as grade school student.)
Creating electronic or online job-aids, references, templates, and
wizards are other ways of aiding performance.

23. Pedagogy & Technology
How can you map Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction with
The 5-Stage Model?

24. Thank you!
mazlan.h@nie.edu.sg