How to Make Research-Based Instructional Decisions Related to Student Motivation
Brett D. Jones, Department of Learning Sciences and Technologies, Virginia Tech
Abstract: Although higher education faculty may have good ideas about how to motivate their
students, their knowledge may be based primarily in their own experiences and based less on
current motivation research. Because higher education faculty often do not have time to become
experts in motivation, one purpose of this session is to summarize the motivation research that is
most directly related to teaching in higher education. Another purpose is to help instructors use
this knowledge to design more effective and motivating courses. To place the motivation research
within the context of higher education, examples of instruction will be analyzed and discussed.
Participants will leave this session with (a) an understanding of the major factors that motivate
students in learning environments and (b) the ability to analyze whether instructional practices are
consistent with motivation research, with the ultimate goal of having the ability to design
instruction that motivates students.
Literature Review
A Model of Academic Motivation
The MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation was developed to help instructors design courses that engage students
in learning (Jones, 2009, 2010b). The MUSIC model consists of five components that have been researched
extensively over many years by many researchers to support student engagement in academic settings:
eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring (MUSIC is an acronym that is used to help instructors
remember these five components). The 5 key principles of the MUSIC model are that students are more motivated
when they perceive that: (1) they are empowered, (2) the content is useful, (3) they can be successful, (4) they are
interested, and (5) they feel cared about by the instructor and/or other students. The model components are explained
briefly in this section and more fully in Jones (2009) and at www.MotivatingStudents.info.
The empowerment component refers to the amount of perceived control that students have over their learning.
Instructors can empower students by supporting their autonomy. The usefulness component involves the extent to
which students believe that the coursework (e.g., assignments, activities, readings) is useful for their short- or longterm goals. One implication is that instructors need to ensure that students understand the connection between the
coursework and their goals. The success component is based on the idea that students need to believe that they can
succeed if they put forth the appropriate effort. Instructors can foster students’ success beliefs in a variety of ways,
including making the course expectations clear, challenging students at an appropriate level, and providing students
with regular feedback. The interest component includes situational interest, which refers to the immediate, shortterm enjoyment of instructional activities. Instructors can create situational interest by designing instruction and
coursework that incorporates novelty, social interaction, games, humor, surprising information, and/or that
engenders emotions (Bergin, 1999). The caring component includes the degree to which students feel that the
instructors or other students care about their academic success and well-being. To support caring, instructors can
show concerning for students’ success and failures, listen to and value students’ opinions and ideas, and devote time
and energy to helping students (Jones, 2009).
Higher Education Research Related to the MUSIC Model
The MUSIC model has been used in higher education to examine students’ motivation and to provide implications
for instructors who use a variety of instructional approaches, such as problem-based learning (Jones, Epler, Mokri,
Bryant, & Paretti, 2013) and online instruction (Hall, Jones, Amelink, & Hu, 2013; Jones, 2010a; Jones, Watson,
Rakes, & Akalin, 2012), as well as instruction that uses mind mapping activities (Jones, Ruff, Snyder, Petrich, &
Koonce, 2012) or incorporates specific first-day activities (McGinley & Jones, in press). The results indicate that all
five of the MUSIC components are important in educational settings, but that the importance of the components can
vary depending upon the age of students, the type of course, and the type of assignments provided. For example,
students in an online course perceived that they could succeed and felt empowered, but they did not perceive the
course to be overly useful and believed that the course could be more interesting (Jones, Watson, et al., 2012). In
contrast, some students in an engineering capstone course perceived the course to be useful and interesting, but
struggled to feel successful when they were given too much empowerment (Jones, Epler, et al., 2013).
Goals and Objectives
Participants who pay attention during the session will leave with:
 an understanding of the major components of the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation,
 knowledge of some current research related to motivating students in higher education courses, and
 the ability to analyze whether higher education practices are consistent with motivation research and
theories, with the ultimate goal of having the ability to design instruction to motivate students.
Description of Practice
The session will be organized in the following order:
 10 minutes – I will begin the session with an explanation of the MUSIC model to ensure that participants
understand the basic tenets of the model.
 10 minutes – I will briefly discuss some key findings from researchers who have studied motivation in
higher education courses and use these findings as examples of how the MUSIC model can be used to
design and diagnose instruction.
 25 minutes – I will show real-world examples from courses and ask participants to work in groups to
analyze whether the examples would promote students’ motivation based on motivation research and
theories.
 5 minutes – I will answer final questions from participants.
References
Bergin, D. A. (1999). Influences on classroom interest. Educational Psychologist, 34, 87-98.
Hall, S., Jones, B. D., Amelink, C., & Hu, D. (2013). Educational innovation in the design of an online nuclear
engineering curriculum. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 13(2).
Jones, B. D. (2009). Motivating students to engage in learning: The MUSIC Model of academic motivation.
International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 21(3), 272-285.
Jones, B. D. (2010a). An examination of motivation model components in face-to-face and online instruction.
Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 8(3), 915-944.
Jones, B. D. (2010b, October). Strategies to implement a motivation model and increase student engagement. Paper
presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning,
Nashville, TN. Retrieved from http://www.MotivatingStudents.info
Jones, B. D., Epler, C. M., Mokri, P., Bryant, L. H., & Paretti, M. C. (2013). The effects of a collaborative problembased learning experience on students’ motivation in engineering capstone courses. Interdisciplinary
Journal of Problem-based Learning, 7(2). doi:10.7771/1541-5015.1344
Jones, B. D., Ruff, C., Snyder, J. D., Petrich, B., & Koonce, C. (2012). The effects of mind mapping activities on
students’ motivation. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(1), 1-21.
Jones, B. D., Watson, J. M., Rakes, L., & Akalin, S. (2012). Factors that impact students’ motivation in an online
course: Using the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation. Journal of Teaching and Learning with
Technology, 1(1), 42-58.
McGinley, J., & Jones, B. D. (in press). A brief instructional intervention to increase students’ motivation on the
first day of class. Teaching of Psychology.