How can Motivation Gap be Addressed in Learning Design & Training?

Note I’m referring to how we can help them motivate themselves NOT ME motivating them – because I firmly believe that people should motivate themselves and maintain their motivation to go through all the ‘pain of learning’ while their instructors/trainers/learning designers play a pivotal role in this. I used to tell my students that 70% of the work was on them and I only played 30% in this. I used to tell them, “If you don’t want to learn, don’t know why you’re here, or have no goals, no matter how GREAT I do my job, you won’t succeed.”

So, the purpose of this article is the focus on that 30% (it’s a made-up figure though to make the point to my students) that can increase learner motivation – learners motivating themselves to learn or be active learners & use what they learned.

What I did that worked for me & my students:
Spoke with those amotivated/demotivated students individually to find out why they weren’t participating and how I could help them be more active learners.
Asked them what their hobbies or interests were so they could tailor the projects to their own interest while following the same guideline as everybody else.
They shared these reasons: lack of interest in some discussion topics, assignment formats, inability to keep up with the rest of the class (lack of self-efficacy), complexity of some activities, pace of the class/course, parents forcing them to go to college, fear of judgment for their errors (no matter how much I reminded them that errors are for learning)!

So….
Gave them options on formats of assignments (essay format was required by college) so they could turn them in as a video, audio, or essay.
Gave them options on projects and what to work on.
Showed that I cared for them to succeed.
Involved them in choosing the class/online discussion topics & projects.
Explained the rationale for doing an activity, WHY it was important for them and what they could get out of it.
Wrote simple statements above each video, content, and assignment, addressing WHY they should watch/read/do it – WHAT’s in it for them in real life.
Involved the top students to share their study skills tips with their peers.
Never assumed that students knew how to learn. Taught them how to study more efficiently to avoid burnout and demotivation.

You might be asking, “did it work?” Yes, exam scores improved, the attendance went up, assignments were turned in, & I had more engaged interested-looking students sitting in class who boosted my energy, in return.

In her book, “Talk to the Elephant”, Julie Dirksen has laid out several approaches to consider in training that can increase learner motivation.
I’ve compiled them along with my own list in the table below.