Motivating adult learners can sometimes be a challenge. This module will provide you with information on how to design instructional content that will tap into your adult audiences intrinsic & extrinsic motivation! Click on this text to advance to the next slide.. 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.

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.

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.

Motivating Adult Learners Intrinsic MotivationExtrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation is something that drives the learner inside him or herself, such as pride or self- expression. Extrinsic motivation is an outside source that is driving the learner to do something, such as an external reward for example, a paycheck or job promotion. Click on Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to find out more!

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

Motivating Adult Learners 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 for learners. 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.

Example of intrinsic motivation Jimmy loves to play the guitar, he gets a sense of pride with everything he learns. He does not need a outside motivator to keep his attention. He is motivated by the love and pride he gets in learning new things about the guitar

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

Example of Extrinsic motivation John has never cared to learn PowerPoint, but he knows that if he wants to get a promotion at work he will have to learn PowerPoint to give presentations at meetings. If John learns PowerPoint for the promotion he wants this would be extrinsic motivation

Motivating Adult Learners Click on this text to learn more about how to motivate adult learners. Use lots of choices that prompt self-direction. This helps adult learners to be more autonomously involved with the content. Whenever possible make training elective, or a means to an end where participants can choose to participate. This can help to fuel their drive to succeed. Focus on practical knowledge that relates to real- life performance. Provide a demonstration of the utility of the content that is being covered.

Motivating Adult Learners Click on this text to learn more about how to motivate adult learners. Chunk information into small sections. Providing information this way makes it easier for the learner to process. Stimulate the minds of the learners. Ask thought-provoking questions that do not have one answer. This will keep the audience 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 this text 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.