Motivation has been and continues to be a widely studied area across many of life’s domains. Many motivation theories focus on the amount of motivation, with a larger quantity said to result in improved outcomes. However, as educators we should not focus on generating more motivation from our learners but instead focus on creating conditions that facilitate the internalization of motivation from within our learners.
Self-determination theory (SDT), an empirical theory of motivation by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, focuses on the degree in which behavior is self-motivated and self-determined. SDT proposes that all humans require the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs, namely:
- Autonomy (a sense of being in control and freedom),
- Competence (a sense of being able to do something i.e. being competent),
- Relatedness (a sense of being associated or connected to others).
Research by Ryan, Rigby and Przybylski into the motivation to play video games (regardless of the game type) found that motivation to play is accounted for by how well the game satisfies our psychological needs:
- Autonomy
the extent to which the game provides flexibility over movement and strategies, choice over task and goals, and rewards that provide feedback and not control. - Competence
the extent to which tasks within the game provide ongoing challenges and opportunities for feedback. - Relatedness
the extent to which the game provides interactions between players.
In addition to need satisfaction, their research also found that:
Presence – the extent to which the player feels within the game environment as opposed to being outside the game manipulating the controls, and
Intuitive controls – the extent to which the controls make sense and don’t interfere with feelings of presence, were also important as they allow players to focus on game play and access the need satisfaction provided by the game.
Contexts that satisfy all three basic needs will help support people’s actions, resulting in more sustained motivation over time and positive outcomes. Therefore, if we can use strategies to support competence, autonomy and relatedness needs we can assist learners to internalize their motivation of externally regulated activities.
Gamification is a technique that aims to replicate the motivational pull of video game play and apply it to eLearning experiences. While gamification has been met with some criticism, it seems that it’s more the application that is the problem rather than the technique itself. In order to successfully gamify an eLearning course we need to satisfy people’s basic psychological needs (as well as presence and having intuitive controls) in the same way that games do. We need to incorporate game mechanics into our eLearning courses. How can we do this?
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