What encourages student participation in online discussions

Distance learning began as a means of catering to students who needed to learn in isolated, individual learning environments but, more recently, has been evolving to offer an interactive and collaborative learning environment supported by Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). However, research has found that not all online discussions are productive for learning and that simply making discussions boards accessible to students does not achieve the interactive and collaborative experience for which they are promoted. One of the first requirements needed for successful online discussions is student participation. This study sought to identify what encourages student participation in online discussions. Motivation and social presence were investigated in this study because they have been identified as two concepts that assist in the encouragement of student participation. Motivation assists participation because it is the process whereby goal-directed activity is both instigated and sustained, and social presence because it has been found to increase interaction. This study sought information regarding what motivated or demotivated student participation in online discussions and what Social Presence behaviours students found most important for maintaining their desire to participate in online discussions. It also investigated relationships among, and changes in, student state motivation, student sense of social presence and student perceived sources of motivation and demotivation across the course of a semester. Finally, students' opinion about their motivation, sense of social presence and reasons for participation were investigated through open-ended questions. A Sequential Exploratory design was used to first obtain breadth of data (quantitative) through online surveys (n equals 60 participants). This included a test/retest design. Depth of the data (qualitative) was then explored through interviews that were based on the results of the quantitative data analysis (n equals 14 participants). The main findings of this study were that students' sense of social presence changed significantly across the course of the semester and this change was a decrease in sense of social presence for 50 percent of the students. Context and Social factors were mentioned more frequently as both motivators and demotivators for participation than Structure/format factors. Correlations revealed a significant relationship between state motivation and social presence. Finally, open-ended questions generated a number of major themes that help to promote participation. All of these findings have implications for teachers and designers of online courses. They show that many factors influence student participation and that some of these factors may change over the course of a semester. Teachers and designers should use this information when designing and implementing courses to not only initiate student participation, but also to maintain participation throughout the course

Along the way to the mission field: factors affecting persistency of missionary recruits

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1703/thumbnail.jp

Motivating Employees in the Latter Stages of their Careers at XYZ

This field project constructs an easy to follow process for motivating senior employees at XYZ. Cookie-cutter motivational techniques are unable to motivate each individual employee, with distinctive career aspirations. Motivation is difficult to sustain for long periods of time. The literature review stems from early motivational theories of Maslow and Herzberg, and streams into research of business conduct in the 21st century. The literature demonstrates various views on squeezing every bit of discretionary effort out of every employee, among a myriad of work disciplines and management styles. The review encompasses a number of books, studies and thesis describing their motivational techniques and observations. A survey conducted on the general population of the company provided meaningful data on the outlook of company’s employees, accenting their greatest motivational and demotivational factors. Freestyle comments were analyzed further, to determine motivational gaps in the company policy. The survey results identified the most pressing motivational needs at XYZ. In general, employees at XYZ felt that they were adequately motivated to work, however, in order to have sustainability and growth; a number of factors were featured and prioritized. The data analysis and results sections demonstrate the techniques needed to increase and sustain motivational growth at XYZ. Senior leadership and first line management were addressed separately and given different focus points. The focus priorities for senior leadership were identified as: 1. Improve communication and involve employees in decision-making process; 2. Squash rumors and keep the information flowing; 3. Renovate the appraisal process; 4. Cater to the needs of the aging workforce. The focus priorities for first line managers were different: 1. Appraise employees carefully and often; 2. Empower employees to run their lives at work; 3. Provide learning opportunity for your staff; 4. Communicate effectively with your staff; 5. Assess individual motivational needs and motivate accordingly; 6. Add fun and variety to work. In conclusion, the research showed that there were easily identifiable motivational gaps at XYZ, and with senior management commitment, XYZ could reap great benefits with a highly motivated workforce

An evaluation of bricklayers' motivation and productivity

Different motivation theories have been developed in general management to explain workers' attitude to production. Collectively, these theories represent manufacturing workers more than any other set of workers. Attempts made to apply these theories to construction operatives have produced different and often confused explanations of the motives behind construction operatives' productivity. This research approached construction operatives directly in order to evaluate their motivation in relation to their productivity. The research aimed at proving or disproving a conceptualised positive relationship between construction operative motivation and productivity. Previous construction researchers assumed that there was a positive relationship between productivity and motivation without any empirical prove. This oversight was largely due to problems of quantifying abstract concepts such as motivation. This obstacle needed to be removed before the relationship between motivation and productivity could be empirically established. A technique based on the Subjective Expected Utility Theory was developed to quantify motivation. Productivity was measured by activity sampling. Relating them together gave a third order polynomial relationship indicating that there is a basic motivation in every bricklayer regardless of his working environment. The relationship also provided an empirical prove of an earlier conceptualised optimal motivation theory. The thesis shows that there is no significant causal relationship between motivation and work rate; rather, motivation significantly influences the proportion of working time spent productively. From a model of production output, motivation and skill, it was demonstrated that skill dominates productivity in bricklaying. Motivation accounted for 2.4% of the percentage variation in work rate and 25.3% of the percentage variation in percentage productive time. From a sensitivity analysis of the predominance of skill, critical activities controlling production output which could form the basis of a training programme for new bricklayers were identified. After testing all observations and findings for validity, they were combined into a list of propositions which form the basis of a theory of construction operative motivation. Based on the affirmation of the optimal motivation theory in construction operatives, a new concept of hyper-production was proposed

Sustaining motivation for Japanese kanji learning: Can digital games help?

Made available with permission from the publisher.Educational digital games are often presented at Technology in Language Education conferences. The games are entertaining and are backed by research detailing how games can improve the learning experience through active critical learning, learner interaction, competition, challenge, and high learner motivation. The authors, inspired by such presentations, were interested in creating digital games to mitigate problems of demotivation in a beginner Japanese kanji (non-alphabetic script) class at Auckland University of Technology but found there was no body of research on digi-tal games for learning non-alphabetic scripts. This paper contributes to filling this gap by describing the creation of three digital games for kanji learning. Difficulties were experienced during the development of the games and these are described with reference to the divide, discussed in gaming literature, between the type of digital games being showcased at conferences and the reality for teachers wishing to emulate the practice by developing their own digital games. Questionnaire responses and the game-related journal entries of three cohorts of learners were analysed, and teacher reflections on the action research project were used to answer the questions “Should we be leaving this field to the experts?” and “Other than high-end multi-level curriculum-centred digital games, are there different gaming scenarios worth exploring?

Motivation and demotivation among health staff at facility and districts level : A case study of the national Health Management Information system of Malawi

This study addresses the current problems of utilisation of health management information systems in developing countries due to the critical shortage of qualified and motivated human resources. The aims and objectives of this study are to (1) understanding local HMIS related practices in order to understand if health worker motivation affects or is affected by these practices, (2) understand how motivational theory applies and can be adjusted to cater for computing work of supportive nature, and finally (3) to offer suggestions for practice that might improve motivation towards HMIS responsibilities. The study employed qualitative research methods in an interpretive in-depth case study, including literature studies, semi-structured open ended interviews, observations of daily routines and meetings, and document analysis of policy guidelines and national and lower level reports. The study was carried out in Chikwawa district (August to September 2006) and Chiradzulu district (September to October 2006) in the South West region of Malawi. Important positive findings in this study included observed positive value of: (1) HMIS training; (2) HMIS review meetings; 3) supervision targeting HMIS routines; (4) an incentive scheme awarding health facilities on the quality of HMIS reports; and (5) health workers that were interested and willing to learn. Important findings of concern included; (1) problems of lack of skills and understanding among mainly lower level staff on the importance of data; (2) national priority of HMIS was not reflected in all practices at superior levels resulting in a lack of understanding of this priority at lower levels, (3) considerable amounts of adaptation work was crucial to the functioning of the system due to a general slip in computing resources; (4) job context factors not directly related to the functioning of the HMIS hold considerable high potentials for demotivation in general. Analyses of findings in this study are based on motivational theory, using the terms of motivation and demotivation described by Herzberg et al. (1993) and the six categories of good and bad critical motivational incidents defined by (Machungwa and Schmitt 1983). Gasser’s (1986) definitions of primary, articulation, and adaptation work in relation to computing work are applied to address the supportive nature of HMIS work towards other work (management and patient care). This research suggests that the motivational items identified by Machungwa and Schmitt (1983) are chiefly relevant to the Malawian context, but that values should be adjusted to the specific case of the health sector, as well as to the different values of workers at different levels within the sector. The different categories of personnel holding HMIS responsibilities of different natures are suggested to require different motivators. It is also suggested that the division of HMIS related work between HMIS staff and health worker is considered carefully, to improve the motivational potentials

Models of motivation in software engineering

Motivation in software engineering is recognized as a key success factor for software projects, but although there are many papers written about motivation in software engineering, the field lacks a comprehensive overview of the area. In particular, several models of motivation have been proposed, but they either rely heavily on one particular model (the job characteristics model), or are quite disparate and difficult to combine. Using the results from our previous systematic literature review (SLR), we constructed a new model of motivation in software engineering. We then compared this new model with existing models and refined it based on this comparison. This paper summarises the SLR results, presents the important existing models found in the literature and explains the development of our new model of motivation in software engineering

Christian Teachers’ Experiences Motivating High School Students in The Pacific Northwest: A Transcendental Phenomenology

The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study sought to describe experiences of Christian high school teachers motivating students in the Pacific Northwest to be autonomous learners, competent in skills and achievements, and relationally balanced within a Christian environment. The literature indicates two phenomena exist. First, student motivation decreases as they progress; and second, a gap exists in the literature related to Christian schoolteachers’ experiences motivating students. The research question is “How do Christian high school teachers describe their experiences motivating students to be autonomous, competent, and relational?” Purposeful sampling produced nine participants from Christian high schools in the Pacific Northwest. Ryan’s and Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory guided the theoretical framework with three subdomains: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Spirituality will be tied to relatedness within the self-determination theory (SDT) and is vital for motivating Christian high school students. The literature discussed the importance of motivation in the educational process, possible outcomes associated with motivation, and directly tied motivation to student achievement. The gap in the literature does not address the spiritual component. Three methods will be used to gather data: Face-to-face or Skype interviews, one questionnaire, and a teacher writing prompt. Data were analyzed following Moustakas’ (1994) four stages: epoche, phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and synthesis. The findings indicated that participants generally viewed motivation from as a dichotomy from an intellectual perspective rather than spiritual. The study concluded with a discussion of limitations and implications, and suggestions for future research

Motivation and Satisfaction of Software Engineers

Context: The proper management of people can help software organisations to achieve higher levels of success. However, the limited attention paid to the appropriate use of theories to underpin the research in this area leaves it unclear how to deal with human aspects of software engineers, such as motivation and satisfaction. Objectives: This article aims to expose what drives the motivation and satisfaction of software engineers at work. Methods: A multiple case study was conducted at four software organisations in Brazil. For 11 months, data was collected using semi-structured interviews, diary studies, and document analyses. Results: The Theory of Motivation and Satisfaction of Software Engineers (TMS-SE), presented in this article, combines elements from well established theories with new findings, and translates them into the software engineering context. Conclusion: The TMS-SE advances the understanding of people management in the software engineering field and presents a strong conceptual framework for future investigations in this area