The ARCS Model

 

Motivational Design

What is it that motivates us human beings? Are we all motivated by the same thing? Anyone working in human development industry would need to know that. While we believe in individuality, we also grope for a design that covers most of the human beings. Such a design would help us in instructional design. While we may know what motivates others through intuition generated by experience, motivational design has its roots in scientific research, and it affords us some generizable principles. We cannot control motivation. However, a judicious use of strategies and environment can help evoke motivation in the learners. 

As per (Keller, 1987) motivation is a way used by all teachers or coaches or mentors to generate a positive response in the audience.  As per him, there are two aspects of motivation namely, (a) understand motivation and (b) learn enough strategies to adapt them in any program effectively. While understanding is easy, for it is an abstract set of principles; the choice of strategies would always need a period of trial and error till an effective set is obtained. Hence the model is Heuristic and would vary depending on the needs of the participants. To help with both, he developed a model of motivational design that gives four key elements in the learning process to encourage and sustain learners’ motivation. These form the acronym ARCS of the model and stand for Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction (ARCS) (Pappas, 2021).

The ARCS Model

The ARCS model is a problem-solving approach and stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction. This is a unique synthesis from many different motivation theories (Gagne et. al., 1992, p. 117). (ARCS model of motivational design theories (Keller), 2020) describes the four parts with examples to create a concrete connect and hence cover both understanding of motivation as well as strategies for implementation.

1. Capturing learners’ attention:  This can be gained using (a) perceptual arousal or using surprise and (b) inquiry arousal or using a challenging problem.
2. Making content relevant: This can be established using multiple ways such as (a) moving from concrete to abstract or (b) connecting with real life or (c) connecting with future success.
3. Generating confidence in learners: This is automatic when we succeed. This can be built using small goals that give most participants a chance to succeed in the endeavour.
4. Giving learners’ satisfaction: This is generated when learning is rewarding in some way. This can be generated using praise, recognition, achievement or bringing fun in the group.

ARCS model can be applied to any learning setting, offline or online. It gives a framework to benchmark the sessions. However instead of using it as a framework, I would prefer to use it as a benchmark. That is, design a sessions and confirm that all four components are included in the design. This is so I do not get caught in the framework so much that it is hard to move out of it when need arises.

Teacher Training Session based on ARCS Model

I have an online training to conduct for 20 teachers in India who are teaching kids in USA. For group classes, I will be taking a session on Collaborative Learning with them. The focus is to give the teachers some practical tools to bring in Collaboration in the online classroom as a practice (Dynarski, 2015). I am planning the session keeping the ARCS framework and strategic checklist in mind,

●        Attention: Capture the teachers’ interest: I will show a clip from (Pierson, 2013) video with a question, “How do we create an emotionally safe zone for the kids to learn in our math classes”. Rita Pierson talks about building relationships with the students that are strong enough for them to feel wanted in the class. Then I will bring in the idea of relationships of the students with each other for a discussion.

●        Relevance: Tie the instructions to the learners’ experiences: Our teachers are teaching individuals and groups. Here I will bring in some case studies for them to analyze such as, (a) what would you do if in a class of 4, 2 kids have understood and the other 2 have not? Or (b) how do you get to take a break in the class for yourself for 2 to 3 minutes? I am assuming the latter will be more attractive for they teach back to back 5 to 6 classes a day.

●        Confidence: Learning experience as a support in their beliefs about their competency: I will organize micro teaching session in the training session for them to have a small experience about collaboration. For this I will give them a topic and ask them to play act as teacher students for few minutes in breakout rooms.

●        Satisfaction: Assist in anchoring positive feelings about their accomplishments: This is using few strategies, (a) discussion on their experience through the training session, (b) seek their feedback on the session to help us improve and (c) open the space for them to share their stories from classrooms of successfully implementing collaboration intuitively for the groups. I believe that the best recognition is when we get the space to talk about our accomplishments and are acknowledged for the same.

A successful eLearning model needs relevance and choice, especially if it is for adults. Hence along with all of the above, I would keep ‘choice’ open for the teachers to use the strategies in the classes the way they feel best. Giving them a feeling of control is something that will work in everyone’s favour as end of the day, they are the teachers.

References

ARCS model of motivational design theories (Keller ... (2020). https://www.learning-theories.com/kellers-arcs-model-of-motivational-design.html

Dynarski, M. (2015, December 10). Using research to improve education under The Every Student Succeeds Act. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/using-research-to-improve-education-under-the-every-student-succeeds-act/

Gagne, R. M., Briggs, L. J., & Wager, W. W. (1992). Principles of instructional design. https://www.hcs64.com/files/Principles%20of%20instructional%20design.pdf

Keller, J.M. (1987), The systematic process of motivational design. Nonprofit Management Leadership, 26: 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.4160260902

Pappas, C. (2021, May 12). Instructional design models and theories: Keller's ARCS model of motivation. eLearning Industry. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://elearningindustry.com/arcs-model-of-motivation

Pierson, R. (2013). Every kid needs a champion. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion?language=en.