Effectiveness of arcs model of motivational design to overcome non completion rate of students in distance education

Abstract

Students' course completion rate in distance education is getting attention of the researchers throughout the globe. Many factors responsible for high non completion rate of students in distance education are job responsibilities, domestic pressure and complexity of course content. Some researchers reported psychological reasons for dropout like, feeling of inadequacy, distress (Rickinson and Rutherford, 1996); lack of confidence (Cullen, 1994) examination anxiety (Fan and Chan, 1997). In literature lack of motivation is considered as the major responsible factor for this problem as students generally feel lonely due to lack of communication & competition in distance education. In this article effectiveness of ARCS Model of Motivational Design to overcome the motivational problem of distance learning students is discussed. The study indicate that the systems which are developed on the basis of ARCS Model raise the attention of the students during instruction, develop a relevance to the students' requirements, create a positive expectation for success and help having a satisfaction by reinforcing success.