The Expectancy-Value theory of motivation posits that students experience more motivation to learn and participate in learning activities when they understand the value of the content they are being asked to learn, and they have a favorable expectation of succeeding if they try. Self-Determination theory further suggests that student motivation increases when they experience autonomy (the feeling that one has choice in one’s behaviors), competence (the experience of mastery and effectiveness in an activity), and relatedness (the feeling of connection and belonging with others). Finally, we also know that if students are intrinsically and autonomously motivated to learn, they are more likely to move past surface learning to deeper, more indelible learning.

Below are some strategies derived from these theories that you can incorporate into your assessment structures to help motivate students to actively engage in their own learning. Identify strategies that you are already practicing, strategies that you are interested in but have not experimented with yet, and strategies that might not work in your context.

• Giving clear guidance about how students can succeed in the course using tools like the syllabus, grading criteria or rubrics, and study skills advice.
• Giving frequent, early, and positive feedback that supports students’ beliefs that they can do well.
• Giving feedback in manageable chunks that emphasizes learning rather than performance, and focuses on the task rather than the learner.
• Highlighting real-world and personal relevance of course content to students.
• Using authentic assessments that reflect real-world applications, skills, and/or genres, and ask students to “do” the subject.
• Ensuring your summative assessments are measuring the skills and knowledge you want them to learn, and are aligned with the learning activities, practice, and formative assessments they encountered in class.
• Helping students to feel that the course is fair by using equitable and bias-resistant assessment practices such as not grading participation, calibrating scores to ensure consistency between students, anonymizing work while grading, and making the grading process and criteria transparent to students by using rubrics or other transparent frameworks.
• Scaffolding major summative assessments throughout the course and designing more frequent low-stakes formative assignments. This strategy helps to spread out the assessment and grading burden throughout the semester and provides many opportunities for students to receive timely, constructive, and respectful feedback.
• Allowing student choice in course activities and assignments. Offer variation in assignment form (e.g., creating a podcast or a Pressbook assignment rather than a paper, a TED talk-format or a Flipgrid video submission rather than a presentation).
• Co-creating rubrics with your students in class.
• Incorporating self-assessment and peer-feedback practices.
• Providing students with opportunities to reflect on their learning process and progress through metacognitive practices such as exam wrappers, minute-papers, and learning portfolios.

Citations

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Davis, B. G. (2009). Tools for Teaching (2nd ed). Jossey Bass Inc.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.

Feldman, J. (2018). Grading for equity: What it is, why it matters, and how it can transform schools and classrooms. Corwin Press.

Wiggins, G. P. (1998). Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance. Jossey-Bass.

Winkelmes, M.-A., Boye, A., & Tapp, S. (Eds.). (2019). Transparent design in higher education teaching and leadership: A guide to implementing the Transparency Framework Institution-wide to improve learning and retention. Stylus Publishing.