Increasing the Motivational Impact of Technology-Infused, Enquiry-Based Learning by Introducing An Easy-to-Use Infographic App

Enquiry-based learning (EBL) is established within midwifery education as a means of optimising students’ autonomous discovery, knowledge acquisition and problem-to-creative-solution design (Byrne 2016). Simultaneously, midwifery students have an innate relationship with technology that enhances their cognitive processing and learning gain. Yet designing ‘technology-infused’ EBL that engages students remains challenging, as their motives for using technology is mainly personal and social (Datt and Aspden 2015). The project purpose was to address this by a rapid application of a motivational (psychological) systems and instructional (pedagogical) design approach (Keller 2010). Validated in multiple learning contexts, the applied model represents a theoretical meta-synthesis (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) of motivation and an iterative design process that enables educators to motivationally and instructionally enhance learning. Method A 3-step iterative design process was applied over a 6-week period, where an already established EBL group were challenged to generate knowledge about two complex birth modes. Through participant observation and discussion, the educators mapped how the learning journey motivationally optimised the students’ hypertext-thinking abilities. Results: The findings highlighted 3 motivational design factors related to the students’ engagement with technology-infused learning experiences: Enquiry Phase Observed Activity Motivational Review Triggering Educators guided group creation of a structure for browsing & cognitively mapping knowledge Structuring optimised group Confidence in generating Relevant, evidence-based knowledge. Attention was gained via in-congruent ideas Browsing Students independently browsed online sources, to find knowledge Motivated by the structure and ‘summative’ assessment of how they generated knowledge (Relevancy) Concluding Students did not use their hypertext abilities to generate a group-based, knowledge solution. Each student self-synthesised the Word documents and applied the agreed structure. Group Satisfaction was minimised. Conclusion To overcome the concluding weakness, a mobile Infographic Design App was introduced that captured a group synthesis of the generated knowledge, including hyperlinks to open source videos and evidence-based guidelines. To ensure the group infographics were relevant to the students, the benefits of visualisation for learning in preparation for examinations and clinical practice was communicated. Further ARCS iterations relating to how students motivationally experience EBL are underway.