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Motivational Research Proposal for Introduction to Grammar 101

Sandra Chambers
EME6419 Motivational Design
Dr. Sanghoon Park
M14-1 Final Motivational Research Proposal Paper
Due: 07/22/2020
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Abstract

This motivational design proposal focuses on an Introduction to Grammar class for

higher level middle school students. One of the main purposes of the course is to prepare
students for the PERT test, which is required for dual enrollment. The motivational design
analysis was conducted based on John Keller’s ARCS model of motivational design and
emphasized the four components of the ARCS model: attention, relevance, confidence, and
satisfaction. After analyzing the course, audience, and objectives, the findings indicated that the
course is significantly lacking in attention getting strategies and relevance building strategies.
While the course materials incorporated confidence and satisfaction tactics, they were also
determined to need more support. The author then reviews various literary sources regarding
effective motivational design theories and methods for achieving motivational improvement.
Finally, attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction enhancing strategies are presented
based on content of the literary review. The method for creating and implementing the selected
strategies are delineated, and needed content is listed. Finally, the timeline for the new content
implementation is discussed.
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Motivational Research Proposal for Introduction to Grammar 101

This motivational design proposal is focused on a supplemental grammar course for

higher-level middle school students. The course was designed to teach students how to identify
and use grammatical concepts, particularly the nine parts of speech (verb, noun, pronoun, adverb,
interjection, conjunction, preposition, adjective, article) and eight word jobs (subject, modifier,
verb, direct object, indirect object, object of preposition, predicate adjective, predicate
nominative) in the English language. The course will also delineate sentence labelling and
diagramming for various sentence types. The course is intended to help students successfully pas
the English portion of the PERT college readiness test.

Motivational Problems

John Keller, creator of the ARCS model of motivational design wrote, “…motivational
design strives to make instruction more intrinsically interesting… without becoming purely
entertaining” (Keller, 2010).While the Intro to English Grammar class was designed with the
ARCS model in mind, the course is lacking some fundamental facets of motivational design.
Attention is by far the biggest motivational problem area for learners in this course. Grammar is
viewed as a very dull subject for most middle school students. When they hear the term
“grammar” they immediately associate it with “boring” and stop listening.
There are three main sub-categories of arousing attention in learners: perceptual arousal,
inquiry arousal, and variability (Berlyne, 1965; Keller, 2010). Unfortunately, the course is
lacking any significant means of student perceptual arousal such as novel approaches or personal
materials in the curriculum to generate curiosity. The content does not include delving questions,
paradoxes, or critical thinking problems that would induce inquiry arousal. The coursework is
monotonous, repetitive, and expected in both content and delivery.
As with many middle school subjects, it can be difficult for middle school students to see
the relevance of learning grammar. Because grammar is a very minute piece of learning the
English language it is often overlooked as “unimportant”, “unnecessary”, or “outdated”. Because
of this, the relevance levels for most middle schoolers would be very low for a grammar class.
According to the expectancy-value theory it is unlikely that students will be motivated to put
effort into learning without seeing value in the material (Steers & Porter 1983, Vroom 1964).

The course does not demonstrate the relevance of the learning material through goal
orientation. There is no opportunity for students to write their own goals in relation to the course.
While many of the students are taking the course specifically to do well on the PERT college
readiness test, the course makes no mention of the test and does not demonstrate how the content
overlaps with the test content. It does show motive matching through opportunities for
cooperative work, leadership responsibilities, and personal achievement opportunities, however,
it does not provide positive role models for students to look up to. Another issue is that while
many students are taught small bits of grammar in elementary classes, most middle school
students have no in-depth understanding of the grammatical concepts. They may have learned
snippets of grammar previously, but they were never taught what it was or why they should learn
it. So, while they are familiar with the grammatical words used in the course, they will not be
able to define (or identify) those words. However, the course does use analogies that the students
would be familiar with to demonstrate difficult concepts.
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Given that the students will be gifted or higher-level middle school students, in general,
the locus of control would be high, meaning that students would feel that their course grade
would be affected by their own efforts. While most of the students have had previous
experiences with determining parts of speech in prior language arts classes, experiences in these
previous classes would be varied. Some students will feel confident about their abilities to learn
grammatical concepts, perhaps even having too much confidence in their knowledge of
grammar. However, many students will feel that they “should” already know the material, but
they were never properly taught it. This will give them low self-efficacy in the beginning of the
course.
The course provides well for building confidence of students. It has a thorough syllabus
and course schedule that clearly explain teacher expectations and student requirements. Students
will begin at a low level of understanding and build systematically to a more complex and in-
depth understanding of grammatical concepts and sentence diagramming. This process of
progression will allow the students many opportunities for success. Additionally, students will be
able to feel personal control in their learning when they decide their pace in the course and
implement personal preferences on assignments, discussions, and assessments.

The simple structure of the grammar class and a combination of reinforcement and
conditioning should increase students’ satisfaction in the course. Middle-school students find
pleasure in both intrinsic rewards (such as praise, recognition, knowledge, ability) and extrinsic
rewards (such as candy, tokens, or certificates). This course has built in a multiplicity of both
extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. It implements operant conditioning in the form of positive
reinforcement through teacher feedback and student interactions.

Literature Review

Motivational Design is a highly critical aspect of creating instructional materials and

learning curriculum. “John Keller, an American educational psychologist, introduced the ARCS
motivational model of instructional design in 1979” (Hogle, 2017). According to Keller, “the
primary focus of motivational design is on people’s motivation to learn and refers specifically to
strategies, principles, processes, and tactics for stimulating and sustaining the goal-oriented
behaviors of learners” (Keller, 2010). “Learners who are not interested in the topic, who do not
buy into the goals, who generally resist change, or who fail to see the big-picture reasons for
learning the new material or skill… will have otivation gaps” (Hogle, 2017). The purpose of
motivational design is to avoid these motivational gaps and improve student learning and
retention.
Keller’s ARCS model of motivational design consists of four main components of
motivation: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. “The first category, Attention,
contains motivational variables related to stimulating and sustaining learners’ curiosities and
interests” (Keller, 2010). The second step “is to ensure that the student believes that the learning
experience is personally relevant” (Keller, 2010). Third, is to ensure that students have an
appropriate level of confidence, “or expectancy for success” (Keller, 2010). And finally, students
“must have feelings of satisfaction with the process or results of the learning experience” (Keller,
2010).
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Attention

The first component of the ARCS model, attention has its foundation in four basic
psychological concepts: arousal theory, curiosity, boredom, and sensation seeking. According to
Keller, the arousal theory “represents an effort to explain how behavior is activated and how it
changes as one’s arousal level changes” (Keller, 2010). The arousal theory differentiates between
the behavior of a student that has very low arousal (practically sleeping), a student with an
optimal arousal level (engaged, listening), and a student with a high arousal level (anxious,
stressed, angry). It is ideal to keep students in the optimal arousal range so that they perform
optimally in class.
Curiosity is divided into three theoretical perspectives: drive theory, incongruity theory,
and concept of competence. Berlyne, a renowned psychologist, made multiple studies developing
curiosity theory and drive theory based on novel stimuli, perceptual curiosity, collative variables,
and diversive exploration (Berlyne, 1950, 1954a, 1954b, 1963, 1965; Hull 1943). Keller states
that drive theory, “assumes that curiosity results in a state of arousal which is considered to be
aversive, or unpleasant, and results in exploratory behavior aimed at resolving the situation that
led to curiosity arousal” (Keller, 2010). In layman’s terms drive theory indicates that people will
practice exploratory behavior to better understand a situation or to solve a problem (like looking
for food when they are hungry).
Incongruity theory, “assumes that curiosity is stimulated by perceived incongruities in the
environment which, in moderate amounts, can be pleasurable, but otherwise tends to be
aversive” (Keller, 2010). This means that when two ideas are seen as contradictory, humans
often unconsciously perceive things in a familiar way. People generally yearn to remove
uncertainty and ambiguity from their lives (Kagan, 1972; Festinger, 1957). And finally, because
people generally have “the desire to achieve mastery of [their] environment” (Keller, 2010) they
will search for knowledge and information that will help them feel the concept of competence, or
expertise.
Boredom, or general disinterest, was separated into four categories by Geiwitz in 1966:
arousal (low energy), monotony (repetitiveness), constraint (lack of freedom), and
unpleasantness (no interest or desire) (Geiwitz, 1966). To the contrary, sensation seeking “refers
to the extent to which people seek unusual or novel experiences” (Zuckerman 1971, 1978, 1979).
Because each learner is different, every individual requires a different level of stimulation. For
this reason, it is extremely important to analyze the audience of a course when designing for
motivation.
To engage students and attract learner attention, Keller delineates three categories of
attention-getting activities. First, perceptual arousal, or “sudden or unexpected changes in the
environment” (Keller, 2010), ignites learner curiosity and captures learner interest. Perceptual
arousal includes things like including true stories and references to specific people, using
metaphors and analogies to explain complex concepts, demonstrating principles with
visualizations, using lists rather than paragraphs, using graphs, flow charts, cartoons, and other
visual aids, and establishing eye contact with students (Berlyne, 1965; Keller 2010).
Second, inquiry arousal, or “creating a problem situation” (Keller, 2010), incorporates
problems and experiments that require active student problem-solving. Some examples of
inquiry arousal are introducing a problem to students that requires inquiry and deep thinking,
presenting conflicting concepts, offering mysteries or unresolved problems, and using visuals to
create mystery and curiosity (Keller, 2010).
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And third, variability, or “change of pace” (Keller, 2010), alleviates student boredom.
Variation can take place in either format or style and sequence. Variation in format includes
using appropriate white space in media, varying typeface, changing layout, and incorporating an
assortment of materials (text, charts, graphics, media). Variation in style and sequence involves
changes in writing function (exposition, description, narration, persuasion), differences in tone
(serious, humorous, exhortation), alterations in instruction sequence, and variants between
content presentations and active responses (Keller, 2010).

Relevance

The second component of Keller’s ARCS model is relevance. Keller defined relevance
as, “people’s feelings or perceptions of attraction toward desired outcomes, ideas, or other people
based upon their own goals, motives, and values” (Keller, 2010). It is based on various
psychological concepts like drive theory (Hull, 1943; Woodworth, 1918), purposeful behavior
(Tolman, 1932), field theory (Lewin, 1935, 1938), hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1954;
McClelland, 1976) and many others.
Relevance can be further branched into expectancies (goal choice, motives, goal
orientation) and values (interest, intrinsic motivation, flow). The relationship between these two
aspects of relevance can be summarized with the expectancy-value theory, which claims that
people will work toward a given goal only if the outcome is something they feel they can
accomplish and it is something that they desire (Steers & Porter 1983, Vroom 1964).
Students often wonder how they can use assigned course material to enhance their lives
or progress toward their personal goals. They ask themselves, “How is this relevant to me and
my situation?” In order to define relevance-defining strategies, Keller offers three subcategories
of relevance. The first subcategory, goal orientation includes “setting goals and working towards
them” (Keller, 2010). Some strategies for developing goal orientation in a course include stating
immediate benefits, stressing intrinsic satisfactions of the subject, describing what can be
accomplished after learning, and demonstrating how course knowledge is important to the future
endeavors, (Keller, 2010).
Motive matching, the second subcategory in relevance, focuses on “understanding the
students’ personal motive structures” in order to develop “compatible learning environments”
(Keller, 2010). The premise of motive matching is that instructors responsively align
instructional goals with personal student goals and learning styles. This is accomplished when
teachers use personal language, provide real examples, encourage visualization, support goal
setting, promote collaboration, and allow for competition and games (Keller, 2010).
And finally, people tend to be more interested in “content that has some connections to
their prior experiences and interests” (Keller, 2010). In other words, the third subcategory of
relevance, familiarity, suggests that students need to see things that they are familiar with in the
course content in order to relate the new concepts to their previous knowledge and experiences
(Flesch & Lass, 1949). Examples of using familiarity to build relevance are by explicitly stating
how the material builds on existing knowledge, using analogies and metaphors to connect new
content with known processes, and providing learners choices in assignment content or type of
assignment (Keller, 2010).

Confidence
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To be successfully motivated in a course, students need to feel a sense of confidence, the

third component of the ARCS model. Student confidence levels indicate how a student feels
about their ability to succeed and can be divided into two psychological concepts: locus of
control (Rotter, 1966) and self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977, 1986). How students view the outcomes
of a situation either from an external locus of control (determined by the actions of other people)
or from an inner locus of control (determined by their own behavior) will affect their confidence
of succeeding in a course (Rotter, 1966; Keller, 2010).
Similarly, a student’s self-efficacy, or his belief that he has the ability to succeed, can
also influence his level of confidence. According to Bandura, positive self-efficacy comes from
four sources: actual performance achievement (when a student develops mastery consistently),
vicarious experience (when a student has a connection to someone else that has succeeded) ,
verbal persuasion, (when a student is given positive verbal encouragement) and emotional
arousal (when a student shows the optimal emotional level) (Bandura, 1977).
Once again, Keller defines three major categories that help to boost student confidence.
First, in order to build trust between the teacher and the students, the course learning
requirements and the teacher expectations are clearly defined. Second, learners will build self-
confidence when they are given opportunities to succeed. Teachers can build opportunities of
success by organizing content clearly, starting material at the appropriate level and then building
lesson difficulty over time, keeping exercises aligned with objectives, and providing corrective
feedback (Keller, 2010). And last, “confidence is often associated with perceptions of personal
control over being able to succeed at a task and the outcomes that follow success” (Keller, 2010).
Student confidence increases when students feel they have personal control of their own learning
(Rotter, 1972; deCharms, 1976). Course structure can increase feelings of personal control in
students by giving learners a choice in study sequence, course pace, demonstrating competency,
and work environment (Keller, 2010).

Satisfaction

The final component of the ARCS motivational model is student satisfaction and is
supported by three psychological concepts. The first concept is a combination of reinforcement
and conditioning. Reinforcement is simply the idea that people tend to do things that receive
positive responses more frequently, whereas people try to avoid things that receive negative
responses. Classical conditioning, according to Ivan Pavlov, is when two unrelated things are
repetitively associated, the stimulus of one will eventually also become the stimulus of the other.
In his experiment, Pavlov put meat powder on the tongues of dogs to induce salivation. After a
while, the dogs began to salivate while he was preparing the meat powder but before they
received it. He determined that the dogs had been conditioned to associate the sounds of the
clinking metal bowls with the meat powder (Pavlov, 1927).
Operant conditioning, on the other hand, “consists of managing the consequences of a
behavior to either increase or decrease the frequency of that behavior” (Keller, 2010). Four
types of reinforcement can be used to manage behavior in operant conditioning. Positive
reinforcement involves giving a reward or praise to evoke desired behaviors. Negative
reinforcement replaces an unpleasant stimulus or environment with a more positive one to
reward preferred behaviors. Punishment inflicts disagreeable consequences in response to
unwelcome behaviors. And extinction removes a positive stimulus, item, or environment in order
to curb negative behaviors (Keller, 2010).
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The second psychological concepts influencing student satisfaction are extrinsic

reinforcement and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic reinforcement takes the shape of “tangible
rewards… or controlling type of praise” (Keller, 2010) whereas intrinsic motivation is “a
personal interest… combined with perceptions of increases in competence and personal control
over one’s choices” (Keller, 2010). The main differentiation between the two seems to be
associated with whether “the reward has an informational or controlling effect” (Keller, 2010).
Cognitive evaluation, the third psychological concept of satisfaction, suggests that when
a situation is not what people expect, or not what others have received, they will feel cognitive
dissonance (Festinger, 1957). “In other words, people compare what actually happens to them to
what happens to others and to their own expectations” (Keller, 2010). Similarly, Heider coined
the balance theory to explain interpersonal relationships based on individual attitudes (Heider,
1958). Both cognitive evaluation and the balance theory are useful for motivational designers
when adapting for increased student satisfaction.
Students can find satisfaction through intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards, and feelings
of equity. Natural consequences of a course, or intrinsic rewards, are the knowledge and/or skills
that a student has developed during the course. Some forms of intrinsic rewards are positive
experiences using new skills, verbal reinforcement and positive feedback of learner’s goal
accomplishment, acknowledgement of hard work, positive characteristics, and/or risks and
challenges met, and guidance to new areas of application (Keller, 2010).
Positive consequences, or extrinsic rewards, are verbal praise, candy, certificates, or other
tokens of reward. While extrinsic rewards can be very effective, they need to be used sparingly
so that they do not lose their novelty and value (deCharms, 1968; Harlow, 1953; Hunt &
Sullivan, 1974; White, 1959). Extrinsic rewards can also consist of games, congratulatory
comments, personal attention, and symbolic rewards for assignment completion or skill mastery.
Students feel equity when there are consistent standards and consequences throughout the
course and between students (Keller, 2010). Because people naturally compare their situations to
their expectations or to other peoples’ situations, it is important that a course demonstrates
equity. Teachers increase student feelings of equity by assuring that assessment content is
consistent with course and practice work and also when all students are graded consistently
throughout the course (Keller, 2010).

Research

Research focusing on Keller’s ARCS motivational model has been conducted in two
fields of study – practical application and theoretical. Practical application studies test the effect
of specific design features on motivation including things like e-book design (Turel and Sanal
2018), gamification (Hamzah et al 2015), and preparatory mapping (Hsu 2019). Whereas
theoretical studies focus more on repercussions of using the ARCS model in motivational design
and reviews of prior practical studies. Studies that indicate how the ARCS model might be used
to improve literacy (Hess, 2015), to augment education (Li & Keller 2018), or to enhance student
performance (Novak et al 2018) are theoretical motivational design discussions.

Suggested Motivational Interventions and Strategies

1. Course Information
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This course is being taught to provide students with a comprehensive look at English
grammar. Regular middle-school English Language classes focus on Literature, Writing, and
Comprehension. Teachers do not have time to delve into grammar rules. However, students need
a basic understanding of grammar in order to develop successful writing and editing strategies.
This course will provide a foundation for future classes in beginning mechanics, advanced
grammar, and advanced mechanics. Additionally, this course will cover much of the grammatical
information tested on the PERT tests for dual enrollment students.
This course was originally designed hurriedly to satisfy basic grammatical needs of
students who desired to take the PERT test for dual enrollment classes. Grammar, as a subject
matter, is generally held to be extremely boring and dry, particularly for middle school students.
Although these students really want to pass the PERT test, most of them do not see the
importance or relevance of grammar in their future. The course needs to include more relevance
for future student endeavors. Additionally, many students assume that English grammar is too
difficult to learn because there are so many exceptions. Although this belief is widespread (even
among teachers) that is not the case. Grammar is like a puzzle or like building blocks. Once you
know the foundational techniques, putting the pieces together is easy and can be fun.
The first rendition of this course was presented in an online platform. The course will
probably continue to be offered online for a few semesters. It is also possible that it will
eventually be transferred to an in-class setting. For the present, we will anticipate an online and
remote setting for both teacher and students. The delivery system, at present, will be through a
self-paced classroom setup in an online classroom.
This course will provide a foundation for future classes in beginning mechanics,
advanced grammar, and advanced mechanics. However, these courses are not fully developed.
The instructor is TESOL certified and has 3 years of online instructional English
experience, though most of this is in a one-on-one synchronous setting. She also has tutored
Spanish in person for a year. She taught this course last semester to 16 enrolled students.
Additionally, she has taught in volunteer settings for approximately 20 years in a variety of
subjects (music, English, Spanish, ASL, Bible study, etc.) to a variety of audiences (young
children, teenagers, adults, multiple students, one-on-one, etc.).
The instructor of the class is well versed in the English Language (and multiple other
languages). She has a background in Linguistics and designed the course independently using
material pulled from other sources and previously taught the first rendition of the class.
The instructor has practiced differentiated teaching situations and cooperative learning in
the classroom. She has used a variety of technological teaching strategies, in both online and
classroom learning. The teacher enjoys inquiry-based instruction and enjoys giving the students
control of their learning pathways. She tries to always implement hands-on learning and
visualization so that students not only learn the information but internalize the concepts. She
likes to use TPR, games, and competition to help motivate students.
The instructor does not like to use teacher focused lecturing. She does not like learning
through role-play, as it makes her feel awkward, so she never uses it in her classrooms. She also
does not like mandatory group work but would prefer that students choose whether they wish to
work in pairs, groups, or alone.

2. Audience Information
This course is geared toward entry level grammar students. While it is designed for
middle-school age youth, gifted younger students could probably succeed. It is also plausible that
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adult learners would learn much from the course. However, ESL students may struggle with
some of the concepts and would need differentiation built into the course.
The students will most likely not be excited to take the course. Grammar is not a
particularly popular subject among any age group. However, most of the students will be
preparing for the PERT test and dual enrollment. Therefore, they will study hard in order to gain
the knowledge they need to pass the test. They will see the course as a stepping-stone to get
where they want to go rather than something relevant that will improve their lives in the future.
Most of the students will not know one another. They will be from a variety of local
public schools, charter schools, private schools, and home school students. It is possible that they
would know each other from extracurricular events (soccer, dance, etc.) or that students may take
the class with a friend, but as a whole, the students will be strangers. While they may see each
other in the follow-up courses, it is not likely that they will interact beyond the grammar classes.
Most of the students were referred to the course via the dual enrollment specialist in their
area, and it is probable that their parents signed them up to take the course. While a few students
may see the course as useful, most of them will likely view the course as boring, unnecessary,
and a waste of time. Students at this age usually have no use for grammar.
Currently the course is designed for online learning. While many children do very well
with online learning, these are generally highly self-motivated, responsible students. Online
learning can be very difficult for students that are not used to the platform. Additionally, students
that have high parental support will likely have a higher chance of success because they will
have someone to guide and encourage them to keep a study schedule. It should be expected that
the online platform will be extremely difficult for many of the students.

3. Audience Analysis
This analysis pertains to the whole class. Because this is a supplementary class geared
toward students looking at the dual enrollment program in high school, most of the students will
be high achievers and good students.
Attention Readiness: Most of the students will anticipate this course to be dry and boring
because all of their previous experience with grammar has been dry and boring. The students will
anticipate developing enough grammatical knowledge to pass the PERT test and are not really
interested in internalizing the material or converting it to long-term memory.
Perceived Relevance: The only perceived relevance that most of the students have
regarding the grammar course is that it will provide the needed information to pass the PERT
test. While this helps them to meet personal goals to enter the dual enrollment program, they do
not see relevance in future courses, jobs, or lives. They are taking this course because they are
required to (whether for knowledge, or by parents).
Felt Confidence: It is likely that students will fall into one of two groups. First, (C1) the
students that feel they already have a firm grip on the grammatical information being presented
will have high confidence. These students will likely not pay detailed attention to lesson material
because they “already know” or “already learned” the material previously. Second, there will be
(C2) students with low confidence who fear that although they were supposed to have learned
the material previously, they know that they did not. However, both of these groups will have
moderate to high confidence in their abilities to learn the material.
Satisfaction Potential: Most of the students will probably be at a moderate satisfaction
level. They will feel satisfied with their achievements in the class, satisfied with their
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accomplishment of achieving a personal goal (to prepare for the PERT) and satisfied with
learning something that they always felt they were supposed to learn in Elementary School.

C2 S C1
R

The major problems for this course are the low attention readiness and perceived
relevance of learners. The differentiation of confidence levels is a minor concern, because
although the students may be overly confident or uncertain of their current grammatical
knowledge, they both have the confidence to succeed overall.
The major causes of concern do appear to be modifiable by delving into the relevance of
using correct grammar for future courses (high school or college), building resumes and cover
letters, college entrance essays, scholarship essays, and job presentations, papers, or research.
Students can also have somewhat improved attention through initial motivational techniques like
interactive games or interesting video clips.
It is important to consider the grammatical concepts that are being tested on the PERT
exam because many of the students are taking the course specifically to prepare for the exam.

4. Existing Material Analysis

This introductory grammar course has integrated many attention getting and attention
sustaining features. Each module in the course begins with a short (2 minute) introductory clip
that whets student curiosity. These include small rap videos, book readings, etc. and generate an
initial interest in the material. The course uses various metaphors and analogies to compare the
amorphous grammatical concepts to something familiar to the students, like building with Legos.
The course is setup in a step by step process, which is easy for students to follow independently.
Additionally, throughout the course there are interesting visuals and thought-provoking
discussions and puzzles to solve.
Unfortunately, however, there are also deficiencies and problematic areas in gaining and
maintaining student attention. The largest issue is that the topic of grammar is generally
considered to be boring. Additionally, the course is very monotonous. While the students gain
familiarity through this repetition, it typically promotes boredom. There is very little variability
in structure, assignments, or layout. Finally, the course does not encourage students to ask
questions or support student curiosity.
This course provides various forms of relevance generating features. The course contains
listed objectives for each module and defines what the student will be able to do once finishing.
It builds on external goals of the students (namely - passing the PERT exam). The course has
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built in extrinsic motivation in terms of grades, positive feedback, and props from classmates
through discussions. Also, because the course is estimated to have a low class size each term, the
students and teacher will be able to interact on a personal level. The course allows for
collaborative work, puzzles, games, and stories. It also allows for personal choices on discussion
subjects that relate to their own interests (like finding parts of speech in songs that they enjoy
personally, etc.).
While these relevance strategies are useful, the course has no strong connection to
relevance beyond the classroom. Students are not shown any usefulness of grammatical concepts
beyond completing assignments. While most students are specifically taking the class in order to
perform well on the PERT test, there is no existing mention of the PERT in the course material.
The course has no visual connection to the personal goals of the students.
The course material affords well for student confidence building. It provides learning
outcomes, a thorough syllabus, and detailed assignment instructions with examples. The course
is organized, easy to follow and simple to navigate. The course material is appropriate to student
knowledge and capabilities. It starts with simple concepts and builds to more difficult concepts
over time. All assignments provide examples and the self-check assessments have an answer
sheet available. Learners in the course may proceed at their own pace. And finally, there is a
course survey which allows students to comment regarding the usefulness of course material and
assignments.
Deficiencies in learner confidence are few. The course does not allow choice in
sequencing – learners must move sequentially through the material. In addition, it does not
provide a means for learners to write personal goals.
The grammar course also includes many satisfaction producing features. It has ample
opportunities for the teacher to include positive feedback and reinforcement. It also provides
opportunities for students to interact positively with one another. Students have the ability to
collaborate, help each other, and/or mentor one another. Many extrinsic rewards in grades,
discussion board competitions, and game prizes are included in the curriculum. Grading is done
with a rubric and is equal among all students.
Regrettably, however, the course is lacking the following satisfaction producing features. It
does not relate material to a realistic setting. It also does not include information about areas of
related interest. It does not help students to find intrinsic reward and value in the coursework.

5. Motivational Design Goals

First objective
 Students will develop personal learning goals for the material.
Assessment
 The teacher will interact personally with each student about personal life goals
and personal learning goals for the course.
Second objective
 Students will establish personal relevance of the topic.
Assessment
 The teacher will assign a project early in the course where students will need to
identify how this course relates to their learning and life goals.
Third objective
 Students will express that the course was engaging and stimulated attention.
Assessment
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 The students will complete an end of course survey with questions specifically
about engaging activities and lack of boredom in the course.
Fourth objective
 Students will successfully complete and pass the English section of the PERT test.
Assessment
 The students will report their English PERT scores.
Fifth objective
 Students will acknowledge real world uses for course material.
Assessment
 The students will use course material in projects/assignments related to real world
settings (college application essay, scholarship essay, etc.).
Sixth objective
 Students will feel satisfaction in the knowledge that they have gained throughout
the semester.
Assessment
 The students will compare pretest knowledge with summative knowledge at the
end of the course.

6. Potential Tactics
Attention
Beginning tactic:
 Engage students with interesting video clips.
 Show teacher excitement for the course topic through personal stories and
examples of what they will be able to accomplish.
 Show PERT scores necessary for dual enrollment. Give statistics of how many
questions relate to grammar material.
 Indicate that many of the assignments will include self-chosen topics using
grammatical concepts
During:
 Diversify module activities to include a wider variety of learning types (include
not only videos, worksheets, and lectures, but hands on and collaborative
activities).
 Introduce grammar games (like Ink Pinks).
 Use friendly competitions amongst the students to practice grammatical concepts.
End:
 Ask students open ended questions about the changes in their abilities throughout
the semester.
 Show the students the examples from the beginning of the course and have them
recreate the diagrammed sentence.
Relevance
Beginning:
 Show concepts presented on the English section of the PERT test, and how the
course will help them to be successful.
 Have students indicate what their future goals will be professionally,
academically, and personally.
 14

 Include an authentic article about the man who could not get a job even though he
was fully qualified because his resume and cover letters were so poorly written.
During:
 Include a real-life case studies and analyze scholarship applications, social media
posts, newspaper articles, cover letters (good and bad examples). Ask students to
identify which essay they would choose and why.
 Have students identify why using correct grammar is important for them
personally (have them refer to the list of goals that they made previously).
End:
 Have students explain how skills learned in the course could improve their daily
activities (college class papers, work reports, even email or social media posts).
 Have students create awards for class members’ achievements in the course.
Confidence
Beginning:
 Define course objectives and student expectations clearly.
 Show an example of the course rubric.
 Assure students that they will easily be able to identify, label, and define all nine
parts of speech and all eight word jobs and diagram sentences.
During:
 Define module objectives at the beginning of each module.
 Organize course material in an increasingly difficult progression.
 Ensure that students fully understand previous material before progressing to
more difficult material.
End:
 Ensure that final project matches student level while still stretching their abilities.
 Encourage students to recognize that they have accomplished course objectives.
Satisfaction
Beginning:
 Introduce extrinsic reward for each module completed (a certificate, GIF, or
online card).
 Help students to identify possible intrinsic rewards.
During:
 Include prompt and honest feedback for all assessments and assignments.
 Encourage student interaction, collaboration, and mentoring.
 Give verbal and written praise frequently.
 Provide extrinsic rewards after each completed module (a certificate, GIF, or
online card)
End:
 Have students compare pretest scores with post test scores and note improvement.
 Have students demonstrate their knowledge by diagramming long and
complicated sentences.
 Congratulate each student personally for a job well done.

7. Selected Design Tactics

Throughout:
 15

 Show teacher excitement for the course topic through personal stories and
examples of what they will be able to accomplish. (A, R)
 Include an authentic article about people thwarted by poor grammar (ex. The man
who could not get a job even though he was fully qualified because his resume
and cover letters were so poorly written.) (A, R)
 Introduce extrinsic reward for each module completed (a certificate, GIF, or
online card). (S)
 Help students to identify possible intrinsic rewards. (S)
 Diversify module activities to include a wider variety of learning types (include
not only videos, worksheets, and lectures, but hands on and collaborative
activities). (A, R, C)
 Introduce grammar games (like Ink Pinks). (A)
 Use friendly competitions amongst the students to practice grammatical concepts.
(A, R)
 Define module objectives at the beginning of each module. (C)
 Ensure that students fully understand previous material before progressing to
more difficult material. (C)
Beginning:
 Engage students with interesting video clips. (A)
 Show PERT scores necessary for dual enrollment. Give statistics of how many
questions relate to grammar material. (A, R)
 Indicate that many of the assignments will include self-chosen topics using
grammatical concepts. (A)
 Show concepts presented on the English section of the PERT test, and how the
course will help them to be successful. (R)
 Have students indicate what their future goals will be professionally,
academically, and personally. (R)
 Cleary define course objectives and student expectations. (C)
 Show an example of the course rubric. (C)
 Assure students that they will easily be able to identify, label, and define all 9
parts of speech and 8 word jobs, and diagram sentences. (C)
During:
 Include a real-life case studies and analyze scholarship applications, social media
posts, newspaper articles, cover letters (good and bad examples). Ask students to
identify which essay they would choose and why. (A, R)
 Have students identify why using correct grammar is important for them
personally (have them refer to the list of goals that they made previously). (A, R)
 Organize course material in an increasingly difficult progression. (C)
 Include prompt and honest feedback for all assessments and assignments. (S)
 Encourage student interaction, collaboration, and mentoring. (S)
 Give verbal and written praise frequently. (S)
 Provide extrinsic rewards after each completed module (a certificate, GIF, or
online card). (S)
End:
 16

 Ask students open ended questions about the changes in their abilities throughout
the semester. (A)
 Show the students the examples from the beginning of the course and have them
recreate the diagrammed sentence. (A, S)
 Have students explain how skills learned in the course could improve their daily
activities (college class papers, work reports, even email or social media posts).
(A, R)
 Have students create awards for class members’ achievements in the course. (S)
 Ensure that final project matches student level while still stretching their abilities.
(C, S)
 Encourage students to recognize that they have accomplished course objectives.
(C, S)
 Have students compare pretest scores with post test scores and note improvement.
(S)
 Have students demonstrate their knowledge by diagramming long and
complicated sentences. (S)
 Congratulate each student personally for a job well done. (S)

8. Integration with Instruction

Attention Revisions:
 collect interesting grammar video clips
 incorporate personal stories with lesson material
 obtain PERT score information
 verify overlap of PERT content with course content
 diversify module activity media and content
 build asynchronous learning games and competitions
 integrate self-analysis of learning growth
Relevance Revisions:
 develop personal goal forms for students
 indicate how course will help improve PERT English test scores
 find authentic articles (positive and negative) about how grammar affected real people
 develop authentic assignments (scholarship essays, college and/or job applications)
Confidence Revisions:
 Verify that course objectives are met through course content
 Write specific module objectives
 Develop assignment rubrics
 Measure student knowledge growth throughout the course
Satisfaction Revisions:
 Create extrinsic rewards (congratulatory screen when assignments are complete,
certificate of course completion, game winners – extra credit, etc)
 Develop opportunities for collaboration and mentoring
 Provide student comparison of pretest and post test scores

9. Develop New Materials

 Obtain additional authentic articles/examples of great and poor grammar
 17

 Create online extrinsic rewards (certificates, GIF, cards, fireworks, etc).

 Develop asynchronous online competitions for discussion boards.
 Design handout signifying the overlap of the grammar course objectives with the PERT
test questions.
 Develop variant presentation materials (audio recordings, artwork, comics, memes,
visuals).
 Write module specific objectives
 Create pretest

10. Evaluate & Revise

The students will develop personal learning goals for the course material as seen through
personal, one-on-one teacher interaction and assignments regarding personal goals. Students will
be able to identify and demonstrate personal relevance of the course through completion of
relevance and goal-oriented assignments. Students will have the opportunity to express that the
course is engaging and interestingly presented in an end of course survey. Each semester, the
course will be revised according to student responses and suggestions. Students will successfully
complete the English portion of the PERT test. All students will be required to take and share
their PERT test scores so that the course material can be aligned better to the PERT test material.
Students will acknowledge real world uses for the course material by completing their own
personally chosen assignments (job application, scholarship essay, resume, college application
essay, etc.). Students will take a pretest and a post test and be able to compare their personal
pretest knowledge with their post-test knowledge. The course will be revised in areas of low
performance to better guide future students.

Implementation Timeline
The next rendition of the course will begin in early September 2020. The course materials
will need to be updated and implemented before the end of August to be ready for a new
semester of students. The first step in implementation is to create the necessary motivational
materials. Because many of these items will need to be collected rather than created from
scratch, the process should be relatively simple. Any materials gathered from other sources will
need to get approval from material owners.
One of the more time-consuming integrations will be data collection from the PERT test,
and then comparison of that data to current lesson materials. The amount of time needed to
adjust the current material will depend on how closely aligned the current curriculum is to the
PERT test questions. Because the class was designed with the PERT in mind, it is assumed that
the two will overlap, however, they may need to be adaptations to current material and additional
materials needed to cover extra topics.
The implementation of additional motivational strategies should improve student
attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. The main focus of this motivational design
proposal is to increase student attention and relevance. While the motivational tactics will
improve these aspects of student motivation, student attitudes regarding the subject matter will
be difficult if not impossible to change.

Evaluation of Motivational Interventions and Strategies

As delineated in step ten above, many of the motivational tactics and strategies will be
assessed through teacher/student interaction and teacher observation. There will also be a few
 18

assignments that will measure motivational strategy success through student input. Each student
will take the PERT test during the class and provide a copy of their PERT scores. These scores
will be used to analyze the alignment between the PERT test questions and the course materials.
Additionally, the statistics gathered from these exams will provide data to present relevance for
future renditions of the course. Finally, a student end of course survey will be given after the
PERT test is taken to determine student reactions to the course. A sample survey is provided
below.

Student
End of Course
Survey
Please think about each statement and answer as honestly as possible.

5 – Completely agree 4 – Somewhat agree 3 – Neither agree nor disagree 2 – Disagree somewhat 1 – Completely Disagree

1. Overall, this course was educational.

1 2 3 4 5
2. The course material (readings, videos, etc.) was useful.
1 2 3 4 5
3. The course material was engaging.
1 2 3 4 5
4. The material helped me prepare for the PERT test.
1 2 3 4 5
5. Taking this test improved my score on the PERT test.
1 2 3 4 5
6. This course covered all the PERT test question material.
1 2 3 4 5
7. I feel the material in this course prepared me for future courses.
1 2 3 4 5
8. I feel the material in this course prepared me for my career.
1 2 3 4 5
9. I feel the material in this course helped me achieve personal goals.
1 2 3 4 5
10. The knowledge I gained will be useful in my future endeavors.
1 2 3 4 5
11. The course was boring.
1 2 3 4 5
12. The course material stimulated my interest.
1 2 3 4 5
13. I enjoyed the course.
1 2 3 4 5
14. This course appealed to my learning styles.
1 2 3 4 5
15. I would recommend this course to others.
1 2 3 4 5
 19

16. I feel I learned useful information in the course.

1 2 3 4 5
17. I am pleased with my performance in the course.
1 2 3 4 5
18. The video clips were interesting.
1 2 3 4 5
19. The variability in the material and assignments was sufficient.
1 2 3 4 5
20. I am pleased with the knowledge I gained in this course.
1 2 3 4 5
21. The course material helped me stay interested in the content.
1 2 3 4 5
22. I enjoyed the collaborative opportunities.
1 2 3 4 5
23. I felt comfortable expressing myself in discussions.
1 2 3 4 5
24. I felt like my efforts determined my grade in this course.
1 2 3 4 5
25. I understood what was required of me.
1 2 3 4 5
26. The course objectives and module objectives were clearly defined.
1 2 3 4 5
27. The assignment instructions were clear.
1 2 3 4 5
28. The assignments were easy enough to complete.
1 2 3 4 5
29. The assignments were challenging enough to build knowledge.
1 2 3 4 5
30. Please share any comments or suggestions for course improvements.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the current material for the Introductory Grammar 101 course was
analyzed according to Keller’s ARCS motivational model. Motivational problems in all four
areas (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) were identified, and tactics and
strategies were suggested to improve student motivation. The main motivational problem area
found after course evaluation was the lack of attention getting and retaining tactics. Not one of
the three subdivisions of engaging student attention perceptual arousal, inquiry arousal, and
variability (Berlyne, 1965; Keller, 2010) was employed thoroughly in the course.
 20

The course also lacked relevance building strategies for student motivation. Although the
course has relevance to the anticipated audience, it is not evident in the provided course
materials. The confidence level of the students coming into the course will be at a generally high
level, and the course does provide confidence building strategies. However, implementing a few
new tactics to build confidence will improve the motivational design of the course. Student
satisfaction is currently acceptable, however, implementing a few new methods for increasing
satisfaction will help students be motivated to succeed.
In order to address these motivational problems, it is suggested that authentic and real-life
scenarios be included in both the course material and in the assignments. Both the content and
the presentation methods will be diversified to give more variability to the course. The course
objectives and module objectives will be aligned with the PERT test questions and the
connections will be clearly stated in each module. Students will itemize personal goals and find
connections between their personal goals and the course content. They will define the relevance
of the material to their future lives. The timeline for the improvements of the course are
approximately one month’s time.
Course motivational objectives will be analyzed through in-class teacher-student
interactions and student assignments. Additionally, the comparison of pretest and post-test
learner scores and student PERT scores will indicate whether the course successfully met its
objectives or not. And finally, collection of an end of course survey will measure the
effectiveness of the motivational design adjustments.
 21

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