Overview

The crux of this theory states that a learner’s motivation is often a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The implication for learning design is that one must identify where learners fall on the intrinsic to extrinsic continuum in order to create effective learning experiences.

The Target Audience for this lesson is largely intrinsically motivated because the presumption is they are passionate about teaching, and are motivated to improve their interview skills in order to obtain a teaching job.

In Design For How People Learn, 2nd ed., Dirksen notes that when designing for intrinsically motivated learners, it is important to make sure the learners have autonomy and time to work on their own problems. Thus, the format of the Rise360 course is perfect because learners are free to navigate sections they feel are most useful to them, and they are free to stop, pause, and revisit the portions of the course on their own timing.

In Make It Stick, cognitive scientists Roediger and McDaniel state that “trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt” (4).

In the “Tell Great Stories'' portion of the course, the focus is on developing the learner’s interview skills. The learners are not automatically given the answer to how to become a skilled interviewer. Rather, learners are first required to “problem solve” by diving in to practicing some interview questions. This form of experiential learning is more cognitively engaging and “sticky” because when learners finally get the solution, they can reflect upon how they performed in their initial attempts in comparison to the answers they receive afterwards.

In Make It Stick, cognitive scientists Roediger and McDaniel discuss with pediatric neurologist Douglas Larsen how to make medical conferences more effective. They note that: “At a minimum, Larsen would like to see something done to interrupt the forgetting: give a quiz at the end of a conference” (60).

Studies have shown that retrieval practice is a more effective learning strategy than review by re-reading.

In the “Setting the Stage” portion of the course, the focus is on developing the learner’s ability to combat nervousness in high-pressure situations. To “interrupt forgetting” of the content, at the end of the lesson, the learner undergoes a scenario-based quiz that requires them to retrieve previously learned information.