Hello hello!

Guess what? This week marks my 1-year anniversary of self-employment. Whew 😅

After one quick update about my online course, I’d like to share with you my reflection on this milestone. Specifically, I’ll be exploring the role of motivation when creating learning experiences.

Quick update: More audience research interviews

I got to chat with more course creators this week!

At first, I was hesitant to try the cold-email approach. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find people who are willing to jump on a call and share their experience of launching their first course. Their insights are helping me better understand how I can serve the course creator community.

📌 Help wanted: If you’re a course creator or know someone who would be open to chatting with me about building their first course, please let me know! My email is brainoflaraine@gmail.com

Reflection: Motivation in learning experience design

Hands down, self-employment has been my toughest learning experience yet.

More challenging than design school, as well as grad school. It even felt less daunting when I moved to Montreal and had to find a job without many connections and barely spoke French.

For several mornings I’d wake up and think, “Nobody is counting on me today”. And this thought comes with mixed emotions. There’s relief in that I no longer start my days scrambling to log onto my work laptop. But the heavier feeling was a brooding lack of purpose and motivation.

I’ve come to realize that the main source of my demotivation was an imbalance in my intrinsic and extrinsic drivers. 

To get out of this rut, the advice I received was to prioritize action over rumination. Which is why I started this learning out loud project.

The accountability and feedback that comes with building in public is also something I needed. Without a manager or team, I’ve turned to my newsletter subscribers and social media followers for signals of what to keep working on.

(BTW if you’re reading this email, I want to say thank you for playing a role in my search for motivation. Whenever you read, like, comment, or share - I truly appreciate it 🫶.)

The bolded words above are all key factors of motivation when creating learning experiences. I mean this in two ways. First, the motivation for course creators to create and launch their online course. Second, motivating students to enroll and complete the course.

Keep reading for the breakdown ⬇️

Intrinsic and extrinsic drivers

I recently realized something that could help a lot of course creators. But first, let’s recap the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic drivers.

Intrinsic drivers come from within and satisfy your personal values, enjoyment, and curiosity. Extrinsic drivers are external desirable outcomes such as incentives, praise, and monetary gains.

These two types of drivers go hand-in-hand. And the key to motivation is a healthy balance of both.

So my “aha moment” was that although I have a strong personal why (intrinsic drivers) for creating my online course, my extrinsic drivers were weak.

The thing that unexpectedly strengthened this is audience research.

By gaining a solid understanding of my audience’s needs, the more confident I’m becoming in how I can help them. Which promotes extrinsic drivers such as gratification from helping others as well as a stronger potential for course sales.

So if you’re struggling to stay motivated when creating and launching your course, revisit both your intrinsic and extrinsic drivers. And if you suspect your extrinsic drivers are weak, perhaps more audience research could bring the clarity you need to move forward.

This also applies to how to design your course to optimize student motivation. Again, with audience research, you’ll find out their intrinsic and extrinsic drivers to align the course outcomes accordingly.

Action

We’ve all been there. We’ll think about getting started, come up with a long list of ideas, then get stuck when it comes to execution. I recognize taking action is easier said than done, but it’s the key to turn on your motivation.

The trick is to break it down into small, manageable steps. The task “create an online course” is too big. Instead, start with a task like “map out lesson 1”.

Designing your course to be action-oriented will also help students stay motivated. It’s hard to stay engaged while passively watching videos or lectures. Interaction and activities are a must.

And the point about making small, manageable steps applies to assignments and projects as well. As students see themselves reaching milestones and making progress, they’ll build up confidence and momentum to keep going!

Accountability and feedback

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Feedback is crucial to learning.

Students are less likely to give up when they receive personalized feedback on what they’re doing well and guidance on how to improve. The feedback itself is valuable. But the feeling that someone cares about them and their goals is also motivating.

This relates to the course creation process too. Receiving feedback on your work will give you the clarity you need to move forward. Accountability groups are great for this.

And of course, I’m here for you if you’re looking for feedback on your course or want to brainstorm ideas. You know how to reach me, so don’t hesitate to reach out!

Thanks for reading!

For those of you in Canada, hope you have a great long weekend commemorating Truth and Reconciliation Day 🧡

Until next time,

Laraine