The Influence of Instructional Design Decisions on Student Motivation in Online Courses

The goal of higher education is to educate, train, and motivate people (Hunt, 1998). Typically, best practices and accepted design strategies are used to develop online courses that fulfill the needs of the university, faculty, and student stakeholders. This study examines two methods of instructional design -- the Quality Matters (QM) process, and Keller\u27s ARCS motivational design process -- to understand if instructional design decisions have influence on student motivation in online courses. Quality Matters (QM) offers a well-researched process of designing online courses based on nationally-recognized standards. The QM format provides an ideal objectives-based course design; however, it does not account for the learning experience itself. Alternately, Keller\u27s model of motivational design (2010) provides a series of planning activities course designers can use to capture and retain student attention, reveal or strengthen content relevance, instill student confidence, and create satisfaction with the overall learning experience. Student motivation has been directly linked to attrition (Chen & Jang, 2010). Design decisions can be implemented to enhance motivation, critical to student success and retention. Perhaps the real quality of a course only matters if the course has value and is worthwhile to students

Water-Resources Investigations Report 77-105

From abstract: Water-quality reconnaissance by the U.S. Geological Survey and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, to evaluate the status of Ohio's lakes and reservoirs was begun in 1975 with studies of 17 lakes. Spring and summer data collections for each lake included: profile measurements of temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and specific conductance; field and laboratory analyses of physical, biological, chemical (nutrient), and organic characteristics; concentrations of major and minor chemical constituents from composites of the water column; and physical and chemical data from major inflows

Water-Resources Investigations Report 78-109

From abstract: "Twenty-eight Ohio lakes (fourteen per year) were sampled by the U.S. Geological Survey and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for water-quality characteristics during the spring and summer of 1976 and 1977." It contains maps, graphs, and tables