Opportunities and Challenges of Connections, Trust, Diversity, and Conflict for Motivation, Volition, and Engagement in Online Learning

Abstract

Motivation is an important parameter for successful completion of the course by the student. There are many factors that can mar such motivation like digital fatigue, poor instructional design, facilitator competency, course design, assessment practices, and student support. For online teaching learning, the authors spend a lot of time in front of computer monitors, keep typing on computer keyboard, listen to audio using headsets, etc. The students may be sitting in live meeting of their class and not understand what is expected of them. They may have a sense of being lost and demotivated. The students may not want to ask questions for fear of appearing foolish. This chapter looks into the factors related to motivation in online teaching and learning settings. It examines the factors related to motivation like deepening connections, dealing with diversity, managing conflict, teacher capabilities for online facilitation, providing feedback, providing educational resources to students, digital fatigue, assessment and evaluation practices for online learning, and conversing.