Millennial generation members were born in or after 1980. Millennials are driven by rewards. When Ng, Schweitzer, and Lyons conducted a study on the expectations of millennial generation members with regards to their careers, they definitely have financial reward at the top of their lists followed by rapid advancement (Ng, Schweitzer, Lyons, 2010). So how does this information equate to teaching online learners who belong to this generation?
As online instructors, we certainly cannot pay our students to learn effectively. However, given that they are driven to getting rewards, we must keep that in mind as we teach them. This unique generation had Nintendo and Game Boys in their hands as toddlers. Some of them were flying airplanes with joysticks and F keys when they were three. What motivated them as kids to be fixated on the screen of computer screens and television screens to play a game over and over for long hours again is something college instructors should think about.
It isn't the repetition of the tasks that drives them. It is the "rewards" in doing extremely well from one level to the next. The rewards are not tangible but it brings out the competitive edge in them and the drive to even get more ahead in the game.
Of course, achieving a good grade is a priority in every class. However, that "A" or "B" cannot be realized until the end of the semester. In the meantime, while professors are systematically downloading handouts and lectures on their learning management systems such as Blackboard, millennial students are getting plenty of distractions from the outside world. Are they learning? When they are tested online, can you be sure that they have learned the lesson or did they just conduct a "search and replace" of key words in their e-books or notes in order to get the answers?
As instructors, it is our job to make sure that our students are really learning what they need to learn. After all, they will be leading corporations someday, managing your portfolio in the future, or teaching your kids or grandchildren some day. If we know that millennial generation online learners are driven by rewards, we need to come up with ideas that will truly reward them in our online classes.
I personally like to give out "digital badges" to each student and place them in my announcement section. This way, each student will press on to get that digital badge so that his/her name will be on my my announcement board as well. For instance, everyone gets Module 1 badge after they finish Module 1. However, there must be one or two discussion generators (those who visit the discussion boards everyday and put in more than their 2 cents). In other words, those who are actively participating in discussions and those who are generating topics and issues for discussions get a DG badge or a discussion generator badge for the module.
To generate a badge, go to this link:
http://www.webestools.com/web20-badge-generator-free-image-beta-photoshop-web20-badge-generator.html
For more information on digital badges to motivate learners, go to this link:
http://www.openbadges.org/en-US/
Reference
Ng, E., Schweitzer, L., & Lyons, S (2010). New generation, great expectations: A field study of millennial generation. doi: 10.1007/7s10869-010-9159-4
