Using the ARCS Model of Motivation in Presentations

 

John Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation is used to help engage learners by using several strategies under the acronym ARCS. But do you also know that you can use Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation to engage your audience when giving a presentation? The components or the acronyms ARCS stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. The motivational strategies are also effective in helping you prepare and present a better presentation.

When considering the ARCS model for your presentation planning, think about:

Attention - What strategies will you use to grab and hold the audience's attention? Some strategies you can use include telling a joke or using humor, asking the audience questions, or watching a short video. The strategy that you decide to use should complement your topic and you should always keep in mind if it will be appropriate for your audience. Knowing your audience is imperative to selecting the right strategy to grab their attention.

Relevance - How is this information you are presenting relevant to your audience today or in the future?

Informing your audience of the relevance of your topic of presentation gives it added value and may increase the audience's interest in learning more about the topic. A simple explanation can suffice or giving examples of the topic's relevance are both great strategies to use.

Confidence - How can you help your audience estimate their probability of success on the topic you are presenting?

In a presentation where you give the audience something to do such as a quick activity or group work, giving the audience feedback on their performance during the process is a great way to build their confidence.

Satisfaction - What strategies will you incorporate to provide feedback and reinforcement?

Giving your audience positive feedback or rewards are strategies that help with the satisfaction component of your presentation. 

Putting it all together:

Here is an example of how you can put this all together

Topic: Money Management
Audience: College Students

Attention: 

Play the song "Money, Money, Money" by the O'Jays at the beginning of the lesson without saying anything to the students. Give every student 10 dollars in paper money. Ask students to guess the topic of the lesson. After they have shared their guesses, explain that they will be learning about money management and will perform an activity with the money later in the lesson. Ask students, how many of them have a weekly or monthly budget? Discuss with the class what a budget looks like with excel samples of budgets they can use.

Relevance: 

This is an important lesson for anyone who handles money or makes money to learn about. It can help them learn to effectively manage their money and make the most of their money. Money management is a great predictor of future success with money or the lack thereof.

Confidence: 

Have students pair up with another student to use their paper money of 1,000 dollars to come up with a monthly budget that shows how they will effectively distribute their money for rent, groceries, etc. They will use the sample monthly budget that the teacher has provided as a guide. For each item such as rent, groceries, etc., they will specify a realistic amount and show how much they spent and save. Each one-dollar bill that they have will represent 50 dollars, totaling 1,000 dollars. Once they have completed this activity, they will share their budget with the class and explain it.

Satisfaction: 

The teacher will give the students positive feedback and help them make adjustments to their budgets where necessary. This will also be a time where students can ask questions to help reinforce what they have learned.

This is a sample lesson of how you can use the ARCS model of motivation in a lesson. There are a wealth of strategies you can use under each component. Hopefully, these examples of activities and strategies you can use will help you in creating a more engaging, interactive, and motivational presentation.