Motivation Issues and Answers

Webster University

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Motivation Issues and Answers

Students and faculty alike have been struggling with motivation these last few months due to the stress and trauma of the pandemic. Why is this happening?

When we experience stress or trauma, it becomes very difficult to self-regulate our own emotions and behaviors. We may have trouble focusing on work, we may find it difficult to calm ourselves when we encounter frustrations, and we may find that even simple tasks feel overwhelming.

motivationWhen this happens and we're not able to function and work efficiently, we often feel like we, ourselves, are to blame. We tell ourselves, "Everyone else has it figured out but me!​" So what happens?  We feel guilt and shame, which leads to procrastination, and then our motivation tanks even further.

Both students and faculty are experiencing these sorts of difficulties right now, and it might look like a range of behaviors and feelings: for instance, having trouble focusing enough to read, having a hard time getting started on projects, becoming easily distracted by other activities, and experiencing heightened mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

What can we do to support student motivation during this time? We need to anticipate that this is going to be an issue due to all of the stress and trauma that may be in students' lives right now. Here are a few things that we can do to support our students:

  • Be clear and transparent about your expectations; help students feel like they have some control. One of the most important aspects of feeling safe is feeling like we have some control over our environment and our situation. No one has that right now, so the more you can do to help students feel like they have control over this small area of their lives, the better.
  • Return to your course outcomes in order to only include what is most necessary and impactful: this is a moment to reconsider anything that doesn't clearly align with your outcomes or that might be considered busywork.​ Student focus and time is at a premium right now.
  • Help students align their individual goals with your course outcomes: in terms of helping students see why the course is important, consider using reflective activities where students think about how the course outcomes relate to their individual goals.
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  • Chunk any larger assignments into smaller bits: it's always hard to begin a big project such as a research paper, and now, when we're all having trouble with things like self-regulation and executive functioning, just beginning a big project can be a huge hurdle. So make it more manageable by breaking the work into smaller pieces so that students feel like they're moving through the course and making regular progress.​
  • Talk to students about how this pandemic is affecting issues of wellbeing and motivation. Discuss how it’s normal to experience procrastination, guilt, and demotivation. Normalizing the challenges we're all experiencing will help your students both in your class and in their everyday lives​.
  • Consider how this course relates to students' current experience: when we talk to faculty about what has been the most meaningful or exciting part of this teaching experience, we're often hearing stories about how their students are doing work related to the pandemic in some way, or related to the social aspects of living during a pandemic.​ So consider how your own course material may relate to the most pressing issues in students' lives right now.

What do our students need now?

"We need to be human first, professor second."​

Kathy Davidson

Cathy Davidson's blog post, "The Single Most Essential Requirement in Designing a Fall Online Course," provides some great insights into how trauma may effect our students' success in our courses in the fall, and offers some ideas about how we can respond.

This post is also useful because it provides some examples of  how you can leverage your disciplinary expertise for this moment. A few examples she shares of what her colleagues are doing with their students:

  • Video editing: creating videos of solo walks or videos through Zoom, videos that reflect on friendship and social isolation​
  • Political science: mapping fall voting patterns in the U.S. and the impact of COVID-19​
  • History: analyzing the 1793 Yellow Fever plague in Philadelphia​
  • Urban planning: redesigning a public space for public health​
  • Arts courses: producing content for public sharing​

​Access the article here:

Cathy Davidson: Essential Requirements for Teaching Online Links to an external site.

Trauma-informed teaching resources

Trauma Informed Care in the Classroom  Links to an external site.

Trauma Informed Teaching Strategies  Links to an external site.

Seven Recommendations for Helping Students Thrive in Times of Trauma  Links to an external site.