EduBacon

I’d like to start the Edubacon Weekly Specials off with a bang. Motivating learners has been a problem for education systems for a while, and so it seems like a great topic. Okay, truth is I think I wrote a great blog post on motivation last week right after the Serious Games Jam, and I’m stuck on the topic right now.

With motivation being a big part of the push for educational games, and that strategy not working as well as many would like, this is a bigger problem than my self-promotion attempts. Fact is that people are loosing the motivation to learn through school. Drop out rates and other such things show this.

So, with all the motivating things in life, I figure there have to be some answers, or at least a good direction out there somewhere. Games have motivating factors. Marketing is about motivating people to do something, usually buying something. So, how about discussing the motivational stuff to help motivate learners?

Marketing

Just watched a video ( http://masscontrolsite.com/sneakattack.p… )that covers some of this stuff. Another good one I watched is no longer available, but the general ideas I’ll share. Both basically say that you have to give to get. You want people to buy, you need to get them to think your product or service will do the job. Giving away information, trials and partial products is a big part I see in marketing help.

Content & Pitch:

95% Content
5% Pitch

Content is to be valuable content. Sure you can make people laugh, but make sure there’s value to the video. The sales stuff should be a side note to the content, not the main push.

Video & Blogs:

Put the video with that content to pitch ratio onto a blog. The reason I see, but isn’t what is said in the video, is that a blog is a place of interaction. Posts and comments and can have links to posts that mention the blog post. So long as there is the interaction element, I don’t think the blog is needed for educational and learning applications.

Sales & Motivation:

Adding value and not overusing these things will improve how people respond. The video states this very clearly at the end. Out of five videos meant on a blog, 2, maybe 3, videos should include a pitch. DO it too much and it looses effect.

PLF:

In the Product Launch Formula it’s more about building a relationship than selling. Tell some, but don’t overwhelm. Be informative, but give people the option to opt in and opt out. The people who deal with you overtime as you share useful information, content with value, will be more likely to believe what you say and buy your stuff.

Marketing Lesson:

So, while that may be for marketing, it boils down to dealing with people and effective communication. The rule of thumb I keep finding is that you have to add value and be available to get the results. Giving free stuff, even with fairly obvious monetary reasons, comes across a lot better than the pay to find out more approach.

Games

First, there is the play vs work perception. If people think it’s play, they will approach the activity differently than if it’s perceived as work. Keep that in mind.

Beyond the perception and approach issues, there is the motivation itself, that I don’t think comes from the games themselves. Generally I now think that motivation starts with being exposed to concepts. Those concepts are what become goals and dreams. When a person thinks it is possible to achieve their dreams and goals, they have hope. The more hope they have of achieving and/or maintaining their dreams and goals, the more motivated they are to put out effort. Just think of all the effort put into not working, because a person doesn’t want to work.

Play itself has this motivation “equation’ in it. When watching those at play the individual sees something that they want. It doesn’t seem like it’s hard to do, so there is hope that they can attain it. That hope pushes them through the difficulties of becoming a part of the activities.

For more of what I think about motivation and games, check out my post on the topic. ( http://blog.igenoukan.com/2009/06/myster… ) In that post I mention the following video, which I think we all should watch to get a better understanding of how games can be effective, which is part of motivating people.

Engagement

In both approaches there is a big focus on small pieces of information loosely connected and engagement. A couple months ago I read an article on professors trying out different ways to adapt their lectures, including one who broke up his lectures into 20 minuet parts with breaks. In the physics classes I’ve taken in college their were required labs, hands-on science, with lab reports. The lab results weren’t near as important than the report, but the report required the lab activity.

Marketing and entertainment are considered by some to be the major competitors to education when it comes to learner attention. Well, learning has a serious benefit to the person beyond the activity itself and the potential for personal growth. Most other things don’t. I think the big problem is that most forms of education do not properly leverage the advantage. Instead it’s usually, “We know it’s hard and unpleasant, but it’s good for you.” Just because that’s a benefit doesn’t mean the activity should be no fun.

James Gee, the guy from the above video, is a proponent of improving education by learning from how video games do what they do. The following video is about getting some education into video games.

Approach

Okay, so even with all the cool ideas of games and marketing this may not fully work. The reason is that the person/student/learner has a view of this thing that may, or may not, hinder the process. I love to learn, so when given a decent opportunity, I take it. However, lots of people look at learning as more of a chore or requirement. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard students say they are taking this or that class because, “it’s required”. That’s their motivation for taking the class, but that seems to be it. What can be done with such a person?

Truth is, it’s their choice to be interested or not, but you can remove obstacles and share why the content is interesting. Not all will jump up and down with excitement, but it should at least make the class more enjoyable.

Take the standard math class. You know, the one where half the class would ask, “When are we going to use this in real life?” Ya, that kind of class. It’s kinda hard to motivate a person to want to learn something that seems utterly pointless except to get the points needed for something else, normally. Games handle this in an interesting way. First, the tasks themselves are, hopefully, well designed for what’s going on. Second, the value of the activity and it’s relevance is obvious. The less of one you have, the more you need the other.

See, the person looks at the task and either says it’s worth doing in and of itself, or that it’s worth doing for this other cause. Both of these assume it’s perceived as worth doing, which is where good design comes into play. If the learner sees the task as worth doing, they will put out more effort. The less it’s perceived as worth doing, the less they are willing to go through to do it. “Required” classes count as barely worth doing most of the time. Why, because there wasn’t a time where the learner evaluated the class and decided it was worth doing. Instead, most of what they know about how worthwhile it is boils down to “it’s required”. That view cripples the personal motivation.

Recreational activities are picked as worth doing for reasons not always known to the person doing them. The fact that the person selected them means a lot, but so does the fact that they understand why they should do such a thing. (I know “should” isn’t always a good fit for that, but it’s there for a reason.) In fact I would hazard to say that the understanding is MORE important to the individuals motivation than having picked the activity. That’s because understanding why the activity was picked shows them the value of doing the activity.

Participate

Hopefully you see contributing to the conversations as worthwhile. I do, or I wouldn’t be putting myself through all this just to start them. Know some good blog posts or articles on this topic, please share. For most of the ones I know, check out my blog post called “The Mystery of Motivation in Games” ( http://blog.igenoukan.com/2009/06/myster… ). It’s good, really. (Yes, I know I’m biased about it, but it really is good.) Make a post in response, or just a comment, either way this conversation is better with you participating.

Plus, at the end of this week I’ll put together a post about the discussions. If you add something worth noting you’ll get mentioned.