Blog Post #1 Motivation Autopsy: A Course I Didn’t Finish
One learning experience I started but didn’t finish was an online Chinese language course I took in Grade 11. It was mostly online and used digital tools for lessons, practice, and assignments. I went into it with good intentions, but over time I stopped keeping up and didn’t complete the course.
💡What motivated me to start?
At the beginning, I was motivated because learning Chinese felt useful and impressive. It’s a widely spoken language, and I thought it could be valuable in the future. I was also interested in challenging myself by learning something completely new and different from my other high school courses.
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🚦When did my motivation start to change?
My motivation started to drop a few months in. Once the basics were over, the content became harder, especially memorization and pronunciation. I started falling behind, and catching up felt extremely difficult. Since it was partly online, it was easy to avoid logging in when I didn’t feel confident.
What about the course design made it hard to stay engaged?
A big issue was that the course relied heavily on repetition and memorization, with lots of worksheets and drills. There wasn’t much variety in activities, and feedback was limited, so it was hard to know if I was improving. The pacing also didn’t adapt well if you fell behind, which made disengagement easier.
Unsplash Image by Towfiqu Barbhuiya
📖 Which learner needs weren’t supported?
Looking back, several learner needs weren’t well supported:
- Competence: I didn’t feel confident in my progress because feedback was minimal.
- Autonomy: There wasn’t much flexibility in how we could practice or learn.
- Relatedness: There was little interaction with classmates, making the course feel isolating.
- Relevance: The course didn’t clearly connect what we were learning to real life use.
How could the experience have been designed differently?
The course could have been more motivating with more interactive tools, like speaking practice, games, or real-life conversation examples. Regular feedback and smaller milestones would’ve helped me feel less behind and more capable. Working with classmates more often could also have made the learning feel less isolating.
Unsplash Image by Berin Holy
Final Reflection
This experience helped me realize that losing motivation wasn’t just about effort. The way the course was designed made it hard to stay engaged once things got difficult. It showed me how important good design is in keeping learners motivated, especially in technology based courses.