Motivation as a principal aspect of distance learning at higher educational establishments of Ukraine

МОТИВАЦІЯ ЯК ГОЛОВНИЙ АСПЕКТ ДИСТАНЦІЙНОГО НАВЧАННЯ В ЗАКЛАДАХ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ УКРАЇНИ

Разом з усіма глобальними трансформаціями суспільства, спричиненими пандемією SARS-CoV-2, українська система освіти зазнає кардинальних змін, оскільки дистанційне навчання набуває все більшої популярності. Метою даного дослідження є вивчення необхідності застосування дистанційного навчання у закладах вищої освіти в Україні, розглянути його переваги та недоліки, дослідити мотиваційний аспект дистанційного навчання та модель Келлера ARCS, зокрема. У статті розглянуто дистанційне навчання як альтернативну форму освіти, виокремлено його сильні та слабкі сторони, досліджено мотиваційний фактор дистанційного навчання як передумову успішності здобувачів освіти. Доведено доцільність застосування ARCS моделі Келлера у дистанційних курсах закладів вищої освіти в Україні.

Беручи до уваги те, що дистанційне навчання є досить новою формою освіти у закладах вищої освіти в Україні, було доцільно дослідити такі питання: дистанційне навчання та його сутність, переваги та недоліки, мотивацію під час дистанційного навчання та її зв'язок з успішністю навчання здобувачів освіти, мотиваційну модель Келлера ARCS.

Усі глобальні зміни призвели до кардинальної трансформації системи освіти у всьому світі. Дистанційне та змішане навчання є тими формами освіти, що найімовірніше вже найближчим часом стануть альтернативними формами освіти, витіснивши решту більш традиційних форм. Вони потребують ретельного дослідження та врахування усіх їхніх особливостей. Необхідно також підготувати усіх учасників освітнього процесу до неминучих змін. Молодь є дуже гнучкою та мобільною, тому може дуже швидко пристосуватись до будь-яких змін, якщо вона належним чином вмотивована.

Метою викладачів є створення цих мотиваційних чинників, розробка навчальних матеріалів, які наповнять дистанційні курси та зроблять їх привабливими, змістовними, легкими у використанні та такими, що відповідатимуть інтересам та майбутній спеціалізації здобувачів освіти. Усі ці задачі можуть стати нездійсненними без бажання здобувачів освіти навчатися, опановувати матеріал самостійно та самоорганізовуватись. Отже, питання мотивації набуває неабиякої важливості. Незважаючи на те, що це питання ще потребує подальших досліджень, належне застосування моделі Келлера ARCS може стати вирішенням багатьох проблем.

Ключові слова: дистанційне навчання, мотивація, увага, відповідність, впевненість, задоволення, модель Келлера ARCS.

Introduction

Social, political, economic changes and SARS- CoV-2 pandemic are changing the world crucially these days. Together with all the transformations, systems of education worldwide are undergoing great changes as well. Ukrainian system of education is not an exception. Distance learning is becoming more and more popular in Ukraine, caused by the necessity of people to stay at home during the quarantine limitations or the desire of people to work and study at the same time. Modern information and communication technologies give great opportunities nowadays, though distance learning is a great challenge and a great way out at the same time.

Target setting. The goal of this research is to consider the necessity of distance learning application at higher educational establishments, its benefits and drawbacks; to study the motivational aspect of distance learning and Keller's ARCS model in particular.

Last scientific researches analysis. Distance learning issues were revealed in the works of B. Shune- vych, N. Kazarynova, L. Kuzmina, V. Bykov, Y. Polat, A. Khutorskoi, D. Painter, P. Valiathan, A. Rossett, R. Vaughan Frazze, R. Schank, C. White and many others. The problems of motivation in distance learning are considered in many research works of Ukrainian and foreign scientists, such as I. Liashenko, O. Musiienko, O. Zelinska, J. Keller, L. Visser, T. Schlцsser, and others.

The article's purpose. In this article we consider distance learning as an alternative form of education, its advantages and disadvantages; motivation in distance learning as a main prerequisite of good results in studies. We study the application of J. Keller's ARCS model to distance learning courses at higher educational establishments of Ukraine.

Issues to be researched. Taking into consideration the point that distance learning is a rather new form of education for higher educational establishments of Ukraine, it's reasonable to study the following issues:

1) distance learning, its advantages and disadvantages;

2) motivation and its influence on students' results in studies:

3) motivation in distance learning:

4) J. Keller's ARCS model application.

The statement of basic material

Distance learning is “a way of studying in which you do not attend a school, college, or university, but study from where you live, usually being taught and given work to do over the internet” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2021: 1). Such a definition we can observe in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. So, distance learning is a new way of implementing the process of education by means of information communication technologies, which provide the opportunity to study remotely, without students being physically present in classroom.

Distance learning is characterized by:

1) flexibility - students have an opportunity to study according to their own schedule, they can choose the time and place to study, they can decide how much time to spend doing every particular task. They study at their own pace;

2) accessibility - due to distance learning technologies education is accessible to disabled people, to people in remote regions, it can continue during pandemic quarantine measures, bad weather conditions etc.;

3) efficiency - efficient use of devices, information technologies, and also time spent;

4) communication - opportunities not only to get great amount of information by means of information and communication technologies, but also to communicate with teachers and other students;

5) parallel opportunities - distance learning enables students to study at two universities at the same time, or have a full-time job and get education simultaneously.

Despite all these benefits, there are some problems concerning the process of distance learning. Not only teachers have some problems with creating on-line courses and complexes for studying their subjects and arranging the whole process of study, but it's also students who have some problems with distance learning. Their most obvious problems are: low self-motivation, bad self-organization, lack of physical direct contact with groupmates, unusual forms and methods of teaching, and getting knowledge, etc. That's why distance learning causes the necessity of psychological support of this process and providing its participants with psychological comfort.

Motivation is of great importance in distance learning. Motivation for getting profound knowledge is the keystone to success. Foreign scientists define motivation as “the process supporting purposeful activity”. Yerkes-Dodson law claims, that the greater the motivation is, the better are the results of the activity (Ehkob Ta m.., 2008: 236a).

Motivation can be subdivided into

1) intrinsic - when the activity is really important for the person himself / herself, and he or she is aware of its significance;

2) extrinsic - some outer factors or impacts, such as salaries, prestige, benefits or incentives;

3) cognitive - efficient creative activities in studies. (Ehkob Ta rn.., 2008: 237b).

Students who are more successful in studies differ from those who are less successful not by the intelligence level, but by their motivation to studies. Successful students are mostly urged by intrinsic motivation, and their not so successful colleagues are mostly encouraged by extrinsic, situational factors. Strong positive motivation can fill in the lack of knowledge, skills or experience, but even the highest level of knowledge and abilities cannot compensate the lack of motivation. education distance learning

Many US researchers were considering the problem of developing students' motivation to studies under the conditions of distance learning. They have defined ten motivational factors which are essential for developing and supporting the motivation to distance learning. They are: 1) environment and climate, 2) feedback, 3) participation, being involved in activities, 4) importance or significance of activities for a student, 5) opportunity to make a choice, 6) diversity of tasks, 7) interest, 8) strain and density, 9) cooperation with other students, 10) target focusing. All of them should be taken into account while arranging the process of distance learning.

There are a lot of problems connected with distance learning, for instance personal ones, such as students' low intrinsic motivation, the unusual form of distance learning, which differs greatly from the common one, being used to teacher's control, being unable to self-organization, lack of personal contact with groupmates, having to study alone, without being a member of the group. There's also a physiological aspect. Reading online is quite different from reading printed materials. The majority of people tend to skim the text from the screen, without reading every singular word. Reading from the screen is also much slower. When a student enters the classroom, he or she is focused on studying, and is psychologically ready to master new material and gain knowledge. When a person is sitting at home in front of his or her personal computer he/she fells somewhat different. The matter is that the home environment is rather relaxing, moreover the majority of people use their computers for watching movies, listening to music, communicating with friends in social networks, playing games or just surfing the net for something interesting and new. Everything he/she sees is quite bright and attractive (Visser at al., 1998: 43). So, sitting in front of the computer while distance learning a person is expecting the same attractiveness of the process, but not a difficult text for understanding or a mathematical formula to remember. It's also difficult to make yourself do all the tasks on your own within the particular time frame and without being controlled or motivated by somebody. Such form of study is absolutely new and odd for students in Ukraine. Every online course includes some kind of tests to check knowledge. But the points or marks in distance learning are not so motivating. All those tests are used more for identifying the gaps in students' knowledge than for motivating them to study. Many students can't spend too much time in front of their computers because of health problems, they feel tired and can't focus their attention. Feeling fatigue, they don't want to study, everything seems difficult and confusing. The only way to improve the situation is to develop the motivation, encouraging the process of study.

John Keller, a US educational psychologist, introduced the motivational model of ARCS. This model describes strategies for stimulating and sustaining learners' motivation. The name ARCS is an acronym which means Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction. The rationale of ARCS is that there should be a succession of these four actions. The first thing to do is to grab student's attention, then to make him understand the importance of studying, to believe in his/her own abilities and then to feel satisfaction from the results of study.

Attention is the first stage, but it doesn't mean that we should attract students' attention just in the beginning of the course or module of study. Attention should be attracted and kept during the whole process of study. According to Keller, there are two ways of developing and holding students' attention. The first is through students' perception. It's necessary to arouse students' interest with unexpected events, stories, information, or by surprising or astonishing them, by using bright and attractive visual aids, by provoking students' disbelief or doubt. The second way is encouraging the students to collect information themselves. Some challenging problems should be offered for students' solution. Their curiosity should be aroused.

There are many methods of attracting and holding attention.

1. Variety of tasks. In order to overcome boredom and develop students' interest to study, teachers should diversify their classes or distance learning courses. Information communication technologies is a wonderful means to implement this task. It's possible to use attractive multimedia presentations, movies, video passages etc. When talking about distance learning, this goal should be achieved by using multiple web sites and blogs providing training materials in a variety of forms. For instance such sites and blogs as Englishdom, ABC English Grammar, Grammarly, engVid and many others can help to master English grammar; lernenglish.britishcouncil provides with multiple training materials in English reading, writing, listening and speaking, such sites as YouTube can help you find films and videos for any classes and topics. British Council Film offers not only film passages to watch but also some pre-watching and post-watching training tasks. TED Talks uses such online video materials as lectures and conferences as training materials. TED means (Technology, Entertainment, Design), so the materials offered are connected with different scientific, research, cultural and educational topics and events. This site is very convenient to be used by English learners as they can watch and read the lecture at the same time, as transcripts are also provided. Using listening and reading simultaneously helps to remember the vocabulary and understand the native speakers more efficiently.

2. Real life examples. Use information, stories, examples, which can be observed in real life. Students will more likely remember the information if they understand how they can use it in real life, and why it is necessary.

3. Humor. Using humorous stories or funs helps to eliminate pressure and relax. It also contributes to mastering difficult theoretical material and remembering it.

4. Collecting information. Such activities as brainstorming and team work projects are very efficient.

5. Conflict. Using facts and information which is controversial is favorably influencing the process of study, as it encourages critical thinking.

6. Active participation. Various role plays, team work, crosswords and puzzles used in the e-learning process help to encourage students to participate and to complete the necessary tasks.

Inverted learning is a method that is actively used in distance learning. The essence of this method is that students learn the new material themselves and then discuss and use it during online classes held with the help of Zoom, Google meet, Microsoft teams' meetings or conferences. This method enables each student to participate in discussions and contribute to mastering difficult topics and issues.

Relevance is the second aspect to be considered. Relevant tasks and topics should be used. Students are constantly estimating the knowledge gained and comparing it with their practical needs. So, it's not enough just to deliver a lecture giving theoretical material, it's necessary to practice it showing its significance and relevance. New content should be based on the well-known, previously mastered and learnt material, vocabulary and examples. Keller identified five relevance strategies.

7. Experience. It's necessary to show students how the material learnt is connected to the new one, how important it was to learn previously in order to be able to master the current topics. Students should see that learning is a continuous process. When they understand that everything they previously mastered is helping them currently, they will be highly motivated to gain new knowledge.

8. Present worth. It's very important to demonstrate the students, that the offered training materials are very useful for them at present, how they can be implemented in their every-day life.

9. Future value. It's necessary to inform the students of the abilities to use the knowledge gained in their future life. Suggest the imaginary situations, which are likely to occur in their lives, and how essential their knowledge can be to solve possible problems.

10. Modeling. It's useful to invite successful graduates, who achieved great success in their life in order your students see the real results of learning. Real people's life stories and biographies will be also of great importance.

11. Choice. It's better to offer students the opportunities to make choice in the process of study. It's possible to suggest some tasks to complete according to students' preferences. They can be connected with creativity. For example, the choice can be either to make a project summarizing their knowledge of some particular topic, or make a Power Point presentation, write an essay or get ready to deliver a speech for groupmates.

The next aspect to consider is confidence. Only a self-confident person can be successful in distance learning. It's essential to develop the feeling of confidence in students. A student should not hesitate that he/she is capable to understand the material, gain knowledge and complete the necessary tasks. If the topic is rather complicated it's better to make hints or give students several attempts to answer the questions, but not to let them get frustrated or desperate, as it can result in reducing motivation. There are several ways of developing students' confidence.

12. Defining goals and demands. It's necessary to explain students the final goal and the demands to this or that task, topic, module, evaluating performance criteria etc. Sometimes it's necessary to persuade students, that this goal is really achievable.

13. Students support. It's necessary to create prerequisites for success, let students achieve some intermediate results, evaluate students' performance, praise them for any little success. If students do not see any results of their efforts or do not achieve success it can lead to reducing motivation and reluctance to study. If a student is not very capable in English, it's essential to select easier tasks for him/her, in order to show that nothing is impossible, and he/she can achieve good results if he/she endeavors.

14. Feedback. It's very important for the students to get feedback, as they should understand what is right and what is wrong in their work. Good results encourage them to take even more efforts. It's better if feedback in distance learning is private and supporting. It should be prompt. Various messengers are perfect for this purpose.

15. Control. It's necessary to control students' work, appraise it, give marks or points. They should understand that somebody is interested in their results and follows their work and success. It's good to use some self-control tasks. They develop students' independence, confidence and responsibility for their results.

The last aspect is satisfaction. When all the previous stages have been applied, it's still observed that by the end of the course students' motivation decreases. They feel tired and exhausted overloaded by great amount of training materials and information. At this stage it's essential to show students, that the results of their study meet their expectations, and knowledge gained can be easily applied in their every-day life and help them to succeed in life and further studies (MycieHKO, 3enmcbKa, 2011: 67). Various incentives are essential, awards, praise, good assessment, positive feedback. All these lead to students' satisfaction and encourage them to learn even more and continue the process of study. Sound competition between students can also be challenging. It's also reasonable at this stage to provide the students with the opportunity to apply knowledge gained into practice just immediately, while completing a test, making a presentation or answering a challenging question of a teacher.

Summarizing all the above mentioned issues, it's possible to make the conclusion, that all global changes lead to crucial changes in the education process worldwide. Distance learning and blended learning are most likely to become alternative forms of education in the nearest time. That's why it's necessary to take into consideration their advantages and disadvantages, and get all the participants of educational process ready to all possible changes. Young people are very flexible, and will adjust themselves to any changes, if they are properly motivated.

The goal of teachers is to develop training materials in order to make the distance learning course substantive and easy to understand, attractive and relevant to students' interests and future career. All these tasks are impossible without students' eagerness to learn. So, the problem of motivation is of utmost importance. Though this problem is to be further investigated, proper application of Keller's model will help in its solution.

Bibliography

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References

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