Learning process that occurs in individual is aiming to get skills, abilities and knowledge. The success indicator of learning process learning can be seen in student’s achievement that qualitatively should be better than the previous state. In order to achieve student’s learning achievement as expected, it is necessary to note several factors that affect learning performances, including: internal and external factors. Internal factors are contained in students, such as: intelligence, talent, interest and motivation. While external factors are factors that come outside of the student, such as experience, family background, school environment and so on.

The development of student’s motivation in the learning process can be referred as a way to improve learning. With motivation, students are encouraged to learn to increase their performance to acquire new KSA. ARCS model approach (Keller, 1987) can be used as motivational design approach when designing e-learning.  Attention is one from four motivational categories described in this model.  For me, gaining student’s attention is basically method or strategies how to make students focus, prepare and ready for information transfer which enable information processing and storing to student’s long term memory. But based on my observation in e-learning environment, gaining attention efforts are problematic.  In face to face environment, teachers can directly monitor their students (activities, performance, etc) and make it relatively easier for them to act in order to intercept the degradation or to keep and enhance student’s attention. Teacher’s action can be jokes, direct question, etc. These are rarely happen in online environment. In fact, I think it almost impossible to directly monitor the changes. In connection with my experience, I found that a lot of  UT’s students are not interested in e-learning  or leave in the middle e-learning session although we offer this services free of charge and gives bonus point to the final grade ( In UT,  tutorial student is not mandatory and only for student’s learning support services. They can get bonus point when joining the tutorial and have good performances the tutorial but if they do not join the tutorial, their final grade are taken from final exam). These facts showed that teachers failed to maintain student’s attention.  Fortunately these problems can be reduced because we continuously improve the system and provide workshop for online teacher.

There are three main concepts under attention category in ARCS model; Arousal, Curiosity, Boredom.  Arousal is human emotional /psychological state or level that refer to how ready people to engage in a behavior. Study shown that people can get optimum learning results when their arousal level is located in the middle of continuum curve while the learning efficiency will degrade when their arousal level is located in both low and high state.  In relation with my experiences, I cannot focus to lecture when I feel sleepy (low level). Usually, I do several activities to get my level back to normal. These activities can be: go to toilet to wash my face, make little physical exercise in the class or hearing teacher’s jokes (some teachers are aware with their student’s level of arousal and will do everything to keep the arousal level in the middle, but some other might not). For the example of high level of arousal, I need to get calm down when doing quizzes because if I’m the middle of panic (high level of arousal), I cannot remember what I have studied before and cannot answer the questions. In online environment providing visual aid, humorous graphics will help to increase arousal level and providing clue or sample for upcoming quizzes or assignments will help to reduce student’s anxiety (lowering arousal level).

Curiosity is probably the main factor why people become the most dominant creature on earth.  Because of curiosity, human have tendency to explore unknown. People discover, learn, and create things to make life easier. So what is curiosity anyway?  Based on my perception, curiosity can be defined as desire to know or need for knowledge. Curiosity is definitely one of several factors that influence learning although there were debates to decide whether curiosity is a motive or drive. Now new question arise, is curiosity positive influences or negative influences for learning? Now we back to the question why human need to learn. In nature and in basic condition human need to learn in order to survive and somehow curiosity is not good for survival because curiosity can place human in dangerous conditions. At first, learning and curiosity might look oppose one to another but to recognize dangerous conditions, human engages learning  then to have drive to learn it needs curiosity.  In the end, curiosity combines with tendency to learn is what teachers want and looking for from their students.  In connection with creativity, I think the connection is clear; Creativity is curiosity to explore innovative thoughts.

According to Wikipedia, boredom is an emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity or when individuals are uninterested in the opportunities surrounding them.  This can be associated with failures of attention. Although boredom may reduce learning outcome but sometimes this can be used in motivational design strategies. From my own perspective, boredom can enhance productivity and encourage creativity.  For example in my workplace, I have to do several tasks repetitively every days and this make me bored. Because I’m a programmer then I found a creative way, I created a program that will do these tasks automatically so I can do another tasks in the same time. Boredom also can be used as a signaling tool when I need to work, rest and play.  In connection with learning process, I think teacher can ‘play’ with student’s boredom level to maintain their attention. By knowing student’s boredom level, teacher can create strategies to present the learning material. The key knows when to start and when to stop. Which concepts are relevant to the topic? I think all of these concepts are relevant because these are interconnected and influence each other. By studying and understanding these concepts will provide me good foundation how to maintain and enhance student’s motivation

What the Research Says

I used attention, curiosity, arousal, boredom, and e-learning design as keywords when searching articles from Google and I found several interesting articles and concepts. First, lesson must gain and sustain learner’s attention. Berlyne (1965) and Kopp (1982) in their research provided an illustration the importance of implementing various tactics to gain and enhance learner motivation. These tactics can be the use of interesting graphics, animation that introduces incongruity or conflict, mystery or unresolved problem to arouse second level of curiosity and other techniques to stimulate sense of inquiry. Another important aspect is variability, No matter how interesting these tactics are, when being used repeatedly, these will lead to boredom and learner will lost their interest. Cheung et al. (1999) in their study implemented ARCS model in the instructional design of distance learning program resulting decrease in students drop out rate.

Recently, several studies about arousal (e.g., Currin, 2003; Dirkx; Hara & Kling, 2000; Wang & Kang, 2006) have shown the central role of arousal to any learning efforts and outcomes, especially in online learning. Another study (e.g., Kort, Reilly & Picard, 2001) also reveals the importance of the emotional states of learners and its relationship with effective learning.  Isen (2000) found several findings that underscore the important effects of emotions on learning.

Curiosity can be divided into two kinds: sensory curiosity and cognitive curiosity. Sensory curiosity occurs when physical factors attracts learner’s attention. These factors can be; change in voice volume, tones, etc, while cognitive curiosity is a desire for more knowledge (cognitive structure modification).  Most educators would agree that curiosity support learning and fostering attributes of curiosity in learner is an important task. But it is probably easier to state rather than to accomplish.  Based on instructional design approach, Arnone (2003) proposed strategies to foster these attributes. These strategies are:

1. Curiosity as a Hook. Use curiosity as primary motivator at the beginning of lesson
2. Conceptual Conflict. Introduce a conceptual conflict when possible. Learners will feel compelled to explore the conflict until it is resolved. When the student has resolved the conceptual conflict, he/she will sense a feeling of satisfaction.
3. An Atmosphere for Questions. Create learning atmosphere that make learners feel comfortable to raise questions or expressing their thoughts.
4. Time. Allow adequate time for topic exploration.
5. Choices.  Give learners options to choice topic within subject area.
6. Curiosity-Arousing Elements. Introduce one or more of the following elements into a lesson to arouse curiosity: Incongruity, Contradictions, Novelty, Surprise, Complexity, and Uncertainty.
7. The Right Amount of Stimulation. Be aware about the amount of stimulation may affect learner’s arousal.
8. Exploration. Encouraging learn through exploration.
9. Rewards. Exploration is self-rewarding; study has shown that give extrinsic rewards to intrinsically motivating may reduce their interest in future activity.

10.  Modeling. Model curiosity. Ask questions. Engage in specific exploration to resolve a question posed, and demonstrate enthusiasm.

Conclusion

I think Attention category in ARCS model is very important. Students need to be ready before they start to learn. Their curiosity need to be gained and enhanced because curiosity supports learning. It also needs to be emphasized that people learn effectively when their arousal level is located in the middle of continuum curve.  In order to keep their arousal level, stimuli to the learner should be given wisely. Too few stimuli will lower learner arousal level (sleepy, bored, etc). Too much stimuli will increase learner arousal level which can increase learner anxiety and can reduce learning effectiveness as well. I don’t have experiences in teaching and only have background in computer programming. Before this I only expected that problem in our e-learning system that I have mentioned before are mostly caused by technical problem (students don’t know how to operate e-learning system). Now I realized that we might have motivational design flaws in our e-learning system. By studying this subject much further I hope that I can contribute to the improvement of UT’s E-learning system.

As I’ve told earlier, I work at higher education institution that uses open education as its main system. In fact, my institution is the only university that offering this system in my country. On one side, this condition gives us benefit because we do not have competitors and there are a promising demand and market for open and distance education. But on the other side this, condition is also difficult because we do not have any references that we can take or learn from domestic resources. The only ways that we can do is to learn and take other institution’s experiences from aboard then try to implement their experiences to our institution. The implementation processes often use trial and error approach. This experience also happened when I and the team were trying to implement e-learning into Universitas Terbuka’s system. It takes approximately 10 years to find the suitable E-learning platform and model that match with our institutions and student’s characteristics. I had just joined on the team in the fifth year of this project running.

E learning was originally referred from behaviorism theory approach that emphasized on S-R concept (Stimulus – Response).  “Programmed Instruction” is an early form of E-learning technology that was introduced in mid-1950 by behaviorist B.F. Skinner. This is a systems that learner can use to learn without teacher. Skinner used a teaching machine that deliver learning content in structured and sequenced way. Skinner believes that this method can improve classic lectures and textbook. In overall, behaviorism recommends structured and deductive approach to design teaching materials, so that the basic concepts, skills, and factual information that being presented can be understood by the students quickly. Further behaviorism implications in E-Learning are providing drill, practices, and tutorial using computer assisted/generated learning.  Learning contents must be divided into several instructional steps from the easiest to the hardest. To improve the efficiency of learning, students are asked to repeat certain sections or do a diagnostic test. Students are expected to increase the skill through repetitive practice with appropriate feedback. The messages of encouragement are used to increase learner motivation.

Based on CIP theory’s point of view, Human minds manipulate symbols like computers manipulate the data. Therefore, the learner is considered as the information processor. The information processing starts when information is received via human senses (visual, auditory), then being transferred to short-term memory and long term. The Information flow through a transformation in people’s minds until the information is stored permanently in long-term memory in the form of knowledge packages. Instructional designers must consider about the cognitive aspects when building E-Learning material. This aspect includes: avoiding cognitive processing overload, linking new information with old information already in long-term memory, including activities for different learning styles, encouraging students to use meta-cognitive skills by reflecting on what they learn, and connecting learning contents with the real situation in learner’s lives, so that learners can relate their own experiences.

Unlike the two previous approaches, the constructivism approaches also have different point of views.  Cognitive-constructivism assumes that students build knowledge, skills or understanding through observation and the ability to think. Socio-constructivism theory adds another dimension to the learning process which is social interaction that occurs between students, learning environment and learning sources or other people. This theory assumes that learning must be social, reflective, authentic, progressive, and experiential. While communal- constructivism assume that students build knowledge as a result of experiences and interactions with others, and contribute to the communal knowledge that can be utilized by both students of existing and new students.

Constructivism theorists recommend using constructivism theory approach when developing e-learning.  With the growing of information technology today, the application of constructivism approach for e-learning is made possible.  Constructivism learning can be developed by using the virtual learning environment, multiuser simulation, multiuser games, blog, multi-user object oriented, wikis, etc. Learning process in e-learning should not be happened just because of the interaction between teachers and students, but the interaction between the student and their environment (peers, others people outside the school / region, etc.) should be encouraged that allow students experiencing contextual, fun and authentic learning activities.

So, which approach is better to used when designing and developing E-learning?  Based on my experiences, no one is better. Every approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. The best strategy that we can use is by combining those approaches to take benefits from all. It is very important for teachers for understand the basic concepts of information and communication technologies that can be used to enhance effective, constructive and interesting learning process. Teachers are also required to creatively mix learning strategies that take advantages of ICT, such as chat, e-mail, mailing list, blogs, presentations with PowerPoint slides, simulations, and others. Teacher and/or instructional designer should be aware about student’s motivation and self-regulation because this greatly affects the outcome of the learning process.  To overcome this problem, strategies that are introduced in ARCS model (Keller, 1987) can be used. One thing that is also very important in the learning process is understands the events in instruction. Gagne’s instructional theory is generally used when designing instruction. The theory was based on the information processing model of the mental events that occur when adults are presented with various stimuli. Gagne created a nine-step process called the events of instruction, which correlate to and address the conditions of learning.

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I’ve followed the workshop on how to change the method of teaching from teacher centered to student centered learning three years ago. I’m not a teacher, but my job as a programmer for educational institution requires me to know a little about education. And I think this was my first experience being introduced with ‘constructivism’.  We had been told to leave old teaching paradigm. Instead just ‘feed’ students with all of information and want them to remember, we need to find way how to make students actively found the information and solve problems by themselves.

With this constructivism approach, Students will learn more because they are actively involved in their own learning process; Students are invited to perform investigation/exploration and find something by themselves. Students are invited to interact with real environments and contextual, and therefore they will build their own knowledge.  Students will learn to be active and will reach the ability to think critically and solve problems in a systemic / holistic approach. And in the end will master the content as well as the process.

Sound ideal isn’t it? In reality, based on my experience working with teacher, creating environment, instruction, or activities that support student centered learning are harder than just giving the lecture material to the students especially for old generation teacher. Problems also come from the students itself. Some students may not ready with this approach especially for passive students. Forcing the approach to this type of learner will only lead to poor outcomes. In my opinion, completely changed from the old teaching methods to the new teaching method (constructivism approach) methods cannot be done in full scale. We need to use compromistic approach to bridge between these two methods.  Combining these two methods will give active students the opportunity to build on their knowledge but also did not leave the passive students by giving them the lecture and also encourage them to become more active.