The motivational information design strategies mainly base on the ARCS Model by referring to information design principles by Ronnie Lipton and multimedia learning principles by Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard Mayer. Lipton focuses on 1) word design, covering the content part of information design such as layout, writing style, and use of color; and 2) picture design: how to effectively use illustration and pictures to support what is in the text. On the other side, Clark and Mayer successfully include the use of visual and auditory channels by explaining how graphics with audio improves learning. The audience learns better from animation and narration, than from animation and onscreen text. All the strategies are from synergies and divided into 4 categories with regards to 1) the learning-style preferences of the VARK Model and 2) the 4 components of the ARCS Model.
Style Preference
Motivational Information Design Strategies
Visual, prefer to learn with visual reinforcement
Attention
Perceptual Arousal - Gain and maintain learner attention with the use of humor, contradictive or appropriately provocative visuals to lighten up the subject.
Inquiry Arousal - Present questions with visuals to stimulate critical thinking or brainstorming.
Variability - Maintain interest by varying the visual elements (i.e. photos, graphs, inllustrations).
Relevance
Familiarity - Use visuals to show examples that are related to the learner’s experience and values.
Motive Matching Needs - Avoid red that can irritate the audience which does not match the motive profiles of the learners.
Goal Orientation - Provide examples with visuals (i.e. a flow or pie chart) that present the objectives and utility of the instruction and/or how they are related.
Confidence
Performance Requirements - Emphasize learning standards and evaluative criteria upfront with the use a bright color (i.e. lemon yellow) when it's used with darker color or black.
Success Opportunities – Use visuals (i.e. process indicators, different hues for the same color) to help learners achieve success through a progression of challenging experiences that build upon one another.
Personal Control - Use highlight, shapes to orient learners to control, manipulate, or interact with their learning and assessment items.
Satisfaction
Intrinsic Reinforcement - Use visuals (i.e. avatars) reflecting on how learning the skills helped subsequent work. (Remember, the visual component in VARK excludes still pictures or photographs of reality, movies, videos or PowerPoint.)
Extrinsic Rewards - Use energizing and uplifting color (i.e. yellow, orange) with visuals to couple with motivational feedback.
Equity - Use bright color sparingly and drowned out by even brighter ones or the background to emphasize evaluative feedback.
Auditory, prefer to learn by listening
Attention
Perceptual Arousal - Use conversations between 2 or more characters with humor, contradictive or appropriately provocative views to lighten up the subject.
Inquiry Arousal - Present questions with conversations between 2 or more characters to stimulate critical thinking or brainstorming.
Variability - Maintain learner interest with different methods such as conversations (i.e. a dialogue on an illustration, a phone call in a video clip) and other methods such as acronym, phonetic, or song mnemonics to aid memorization.
Relevance
Familiarity - Use narration to explain visuals that are related to the learner’s experience and values.
Motive Matching Needs - Use extraneous sounds and/or music to emphasize learners are free to make one choice among several.
Goal Orientation - Use narration with visuals and conversational tones that present the objectives and utility of the instruction and/or how they are related.
Confidence
Performance Requirements - Use extraneous sounds and/or music to emphasize learning standards and evaluative criteria upfront.
Success Opportunities – Use extraneous and progressive sounds and/or music (i.e. same music rhythm but getting longer) to help learners achieve success through a progression of challenging experiences that build upon one another.
Personal Control - Use extraneous sounds and/or music (i.e. sound with mouse over) to orient learners to control, manipulate, or interact with their learning and assessment items.
Satisfaction
Intrinsic Reinforcement - Use conversations between 2 or more previous learners reflecting on how learning the skills helped subsequent work.
Extrinsic Rewards - Use conversations (i.e. avatars) to provide motivational feedback.
Equity - Use extraneous sounds and/or music to emphasize evaluative feedback.
Read/Write, prefer to learn information displayed as words
Attention
Perceptual Arousal - Place text near the humor, contradictive or appropriately provocative visuals that are used to lighten up the subject. Learning is facilitated when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other.
Inquiry Arousal - Use text (i.e. reports) to stimulate critical thinking or brainstorming.
Variability - Maintain learner interest by including different text-based input or output, such as reading manuals and writing essays etc. However, avoid onscreen text that duplicates the audio to extraneous cognitive processing.
Relevance
Familiarity - Use case studies as part of the text to show examples that are related to the learner’s experience and values.
Motive Matching Needs - Allow learners to have a choice of the text-based input or output (i.e. several online reading links), and allow an onscreen area for learners to take notes from narration as well as reading on screen or printing out the narration scripts.
Goal Orientation - Use lists to present the objectives and utility of the instruction and/or how they are related.
Confidence
Performance Requirements - List learning standards and evaluative criteria upfront as part of onscreen text.
Success Opportunities – Use text-based input to help learners achieve success through challenging experiences that build upon one another.
Personal Control - Use text-based input to orient learners to control, manipulate, or interact with their learning and assessment items.
Satisfaction
Intrinsic Reinforcement - Present text (i.e. essays) about previous learners reflecting on how learning the skills helped subsequent work.
Extrinsic Rewards - Use text-based input (i.e. avatars) to provide motivational feedback.
Equity - Use text-based input (i.e. a short paragraph) as evaluative feedback.
Kinesthetic, prefer to the use of simulated or real experience, examples, and practice
Attention
Perceptual Arousal - Present authentic and fun cases to lighten up the subject.
Inquiry Arousal - Use real-life experience and examples to stimulate critical thinking or brainstorming.
Variability - Maintain learner interest by connecting learners to the reality.
Relevance
Familiarity - Use real experience, examples, and practice cases as examples that are related to the learner’s experience and values.
Motive Matching Needs - Allow learners to have a choice of what real experience, which real examples or practice case they would like to proceed with.
Goal Orientation - Use real experience, examples, and practice cases to explain the objectives and utility of the instruction and/or how they are related.
Confidence
Performance Requirements - List learning standards and evaluative criteria upfront and use real experience, examples, and practice cases to explain its appropriateness.
Success Opportunities – Use real experience to help learner achieve success through challenging experiences that build upon one another.
Personal Control - Allow learners' control, manipulation, or interaction with the real experience, examples, and practice cases.
Satisfaction
Intrinsic Reinforcement - Include real experience, examples, and practice cases in which previous learners reflecting on how learning the skills helped subsequent work in various mediums.
Extrinsic Rewards - Provide motivational feedback with authentic worked solutions to the problem.
Equity - Present standards and evaluation criteria with an authentic final product.
