Motivating Adult Learners Why is understanding what motivates adult learners important? Adults comprise a large proportion of the workforce as well as, a large proportion of todays higher education student population. When we understand how to motivate our targeted learners, we can be more effective in our educational programs and training designs. Many employers and higher education institutions will require educational programs and training that is geared for an adult learner target audience.

Motivating adult learners can sometimes be a challenge. This module with provide you with information on how to design instructional content that will tap into your adult audiences intrinsic & extrinsic motivation! Motivating Adult Learners

As learners, adults are autonomous and self directed. Instructional design would for example, involve obtaining participants perspectives about what topics to cover. As learners, adults have acquired a foundation of life experience and knowledge. Instructional design would need to make connections to the learners previously accumulated knowledge and experience. Adult learners are relevancy oriented; they need to be able to see a practical reason for a need for training. Motivating adult learners is a difficult problem to solve. Helping adults to connect who they are with what they are learning in order to generate intrinsic motivation is difficult.

Why is understanding what motivates adult learners important? (Continued) Understanding what motivates adults will help to provide a more meaningful and practical learning experience for adult learners. Understanding what motivates adults internally can help us to design instructional content in such a way that learners are rewarded by the learning experience itself. Employers will be better able provide training that will effectively improve productivity and performance. Higher learning institutions will be better able to provide an effective and meaningful experience for target audiences that include adult learners.

Motivating Adult Learners This module will teach you the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, as well as some general rules of thumb in motivating adult learners. Click on the button to continue.

Motivating Adult Learners Click on Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to find out more on each. Intrinsic motivation is something that drives the learner inside himself, such as pride or self-expression. Extrinsic motivation is an outside source that is driving the learner to do something, such as a paycheck or job promotion. Intrinsic motivationExtrinsic motivation

Motivating Adult Learners Now that you know more about what intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are, click the box below to continue in this module to see some ways to tap into each of these motivations.

Motivating Adult Learners Click here Click here to see intrinsic motivators. Add a dose of suspense. The mystery of learning will keep the learner hungry for knowledge. Make course relevant to a learner’s life. It’s a great incentive when training is immediately valuable. Let learners provide feedback during the course. This will let them feel a part of the learning process.

Motivating Adult Learners Click here Click here to see extrinsic motivators. Present some benefits to learning said skill so that it relates to the job or life. Enable testing out as a reward for previous knowledge. Accommodating individual interests and career goals can be a powerful extrinsic motivator.

Motivating Adult Learners Click on boxes to see ways to keep adults motivated. Use lots of choices that prompt self- direction. Make courses relevant to a learner’s life. It’s a great incentive when training is immediately valuable. Focus on practical knowledge that relates to real- life performance.

Motivating Adult Learners Click on boxes to see a few more ways to keep adults motivated. Chunk information into small bits. This will be easier for the learner to process. Stimulate the mind. Ask thought- provoking questions that do not have one answer. This will keep the learner interested. Let learning occur through mistakes. Enable this through context-sensitive feedback.

Motivating Adult Learners Now you will take a quiz on what you have discovered. Click on the box to continue.

Click on the statements that make motivating adult learners difficult. As learners, adults are autonomous and self directed. Instructional design would for example, involve obtaining participants perspectives about what topics to cover. As learners, adults are dependent only on the entertainment value of the instruction being provided. Correct! Incorrect Adult learners are relevancy oriented; they need to be able to see a practical reason for a need for training. Adult learners are not relevancy oriented; they do not need to be able to see a practical reason for a need for training.

Click on the statements that describe why motivating adult learners is important. Understand what motivates adults will help to provide a more meaningful and practical learning experience for adult learners. Understanding what motivates adults internally would not help us to design instructional content in such a way that learners are rewarded by learning experience itself. Correct! Incorrect Correct! Higher learning institutions will be better able to provide an effective and meaningful experience for target audiences that include adult learners. Employers will be better able to provide training that will effectively improve productivity and performance.