Motivation is central to all things human. Online teaching and learning is no different. In the early years of the Web, however, students experienced extremely dry online content, affectionately known as "shovelware." Over time, learners were increasingly inundated by bland content and unimaginative activities. Worse, too often they accepted it as reality. In the process, online learning became highly lock-step and mechanized. There was no room for flexibility, choice, or creative expression of any kind.Unfortunately, most online content remains lifeless today. Legions of learners are interminably bored. Part of the reason is that their online and blended courses fail to effectively utilize the smartphones, tablets, and other wireless and mobile technologies strapped to their bodies or contained in their tote bags. At this very moment, tens of millions of learners around the planet are navigating through seemingly endless pages of their online courses. Unfortunately, most of these learners are swimming in this sea of content without much hope for interaction, collaboration, or engagement. The emergence of massive open online courses or MOOCs with tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of learners in a single course has made the present situation even more prominent and precarious.We propose the TEC-VARIETY framework as a solution to the lack of meaningful engagement. It can shift learners from highly comatose states to extremely engaged ones. Adding some TEC-VARIETY helps instructors to focus on how to motivate online learners and increase learner retention. It also is a comprehensive, one stop toolkit for online instructors to inspire learners and renew their own passion for teaching. Using ten theoretically-driven and proven motivational principles, TEC-VARIETY offers over a 100 practical yet innovative ideas based on decades of author experience teaching in a variety of educational settings.In this book, you will discover: -A wellspring of Web resources -10 highly documented successful motivational principles-Hundreds of activities to motivate and engage online learners-Proven ideas on how to design interactive and collaborative courses-A realistic path toward meaningful and relevant online learning-Detailed risk, cost, and time guidelines for each activity-A highly researched basis for each idea and activity-Hope (yes real hope!) for engaging online learners
About the Author: Curtis J. Bonk, a former CPA and corporate controller, is professor of instructional systems technology and educational psychology at Indiana University and President of CourseShare. Drawing on his background as a corporate controller, CPA, educational psychologist, and instructional technologist, Bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of business, education, psychology, and technology. He received the CyberStar Award from the Indiana Information Technology Association, the Most Outstanding Achievement Award from the U.S. Distance Learning Association, the Most Innovative Teaching in a Distance Education Program Award from the State of Indiana, and, in 2014, the Mildred B. and Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for Outstanding Practitioner in Distance Education. A well-known authority on emerging technologies for learning, Curt has given nearly 1,400 talks around the globe related to online teaching and learning. In addition, he has over 300 publications on topics such as online and blended learning, massive open online courses (MOOCs), massive multiplayer online gaming, wikibooks, blogging, open source software, collaborative technologies, and synchronous and asynchronous computer conferencing. He has authored several widely used learning technology books, including The World Is Open, Empowering Online Learning, The Handbook of Blended Learning, and Electronic Collaborators. His homepage is: http: //php.indiana.edu/ cjbonk/ and he can be contacted at cjbonk at indiana.edu. Elaine Khoo is a research fellow at the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. She obtained her doctorate in education from the same university and her master's in psychology with a focus on Cognitive Science from Vanderbilt University. At Waikato, Elaine researches online and blended learning, learning communities, participatory learning cultures, and various information and communication technology supported collaborative learning contexts. Elaine has been involved in a number of funded research projects associated with online and blended learning and ICT-supported pedagogies across the K-12 sector. She is currently heading a project examining the notion of software literacy and how it develops and impacts university teaching and learning.