Raising Students’ Motivation in Terms of Blended Learning:

The Example of Interface Design Mastering

Liudmyla I. Bilousova

1 a

, Liudmyla E. Gryzun

2 b

and Natalia V. Zhytienova

3 c

Independent researcher, Professor, Israel

Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics, 9A Nauky Ave., Kharkiv, 61166, Ukraine

H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, 2 Valentynivska Str., Kharkiv, 61168, Ukraine

Keywords:

Learning Motivation, Blended Learning, Blended Learning Activities, Interactive Methods, User Interface

Design, Pre-Service Specialists’ Training.

Abstract:

The problems of raising students’ motivation in terms of blended learning implementation at national universi-

ties are discussed in the paper in the context of interface design mastering by the students of various specialties.

In the progress of work, there were analyzed the core features and challenges of blended learning, and covered

the ways of enrichment of the blended learning techniques (ﬂipped learning, gamiﬁcation, digital storytelling,

cooperative learning etc.) with interactive methods and forms of work. The experience of interactive methods

practical realization in the process of the user interface design mastering by university students is presented.

It is also covered the preparation stage of the survey on the estimation of the students’ motivation. The survey

was designed to evaluate whether the interactive methods introducing into the blended learning activities is in

line with the aforementioned rules and detect what students’ motivation levels are. The results of the survey,

according to the levels of students’ motivation are presented and discussed. The prospects of the research are

outlined.

1 INTRODUCTION

According to recent studies, there is an increasing fo-

cus on the students’ retention at university and accom-

plishing their higher education. For instance, the per-

centage of the university dropouts is pointed out as

quite high (40% in USA, and about 10% in Europe)

(Eur, 2023). Consequently, it raises the urgency of

identifying factors that can cause decreasing the stu-

dents’ dropouts. Among the reasons for students leav-

ing higher education (Bonﬁeld et al., 2020; Eur, 2023;

Hanson, 2022), there were identiﬁed some factors as

affecting student’s retention and their educational suc-

cess: (1) trainee’s characteristics including their moti-

vation and cognitive abilities; (2) university surround-

ing comprising teaching quality, learning strategies

and interactions with peers and educational staff; and

(3) external factors connected with non-academic ex-

ternal problems (current job market situation, family

responsibilities).

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2364-1885

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5274-5624

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3083-1070

According to a psycho-educational dimension,

motivation to learn is understood as a student’s energy

and drive to learn, work efﬁciently and realize their

potential (Islam et al., 2018; Ibrahim and Nat, 2019).

In numerous works motivation is considered as an im-

portant contributor to trainee’s academic success and

essential for their retention in higher education.

The issues of student’s motivation boosting in

terms of blended learning are widely discussed by the

researchers. Especially urgent this problem is seen for

the blended learning models with the focus on distant

learning which are currently getting more common

due to pandemic and war conﬂict situations. Despite

the great advantages of the blended learning versus

conventional classroom education, there are serious

drawbacks and challenges of its successful implemen-

tation in the university studying pointed out by the re-

searchers and practitioners.

In particular, it is stressed not satisfactory didactic

and methodological provision in the context of cur-

rent educational process. In addition, it is pointed out

that in order to succeed, the correct blending of the

conventional and online educational delivery needs to

be realized. Conventional approaches to the learning

Bilousova, L., Gryzun, L. and Zhytienova, N.

Raising Studentsâ

Z Motivation in Terms of Blended Learning: The Example of Interface Design Mastering.

DOI: 10.5220/0012066600003431

In Proceedings of the 2nd Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2021), pages 629-643

ISBN: 978-989-758-662-0

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

629

aids creation, educational content design, and tech-

niques of tutoring do not totally suit blended learning

paradigm and do not enable to involve students prop-

erly into active learning process. One more problem

in this context is associated with the fact that univer-

sity curriculum is recently guided mostly by cognitive

approaches rather than by motivation theory, there-

fore learners’ motivation to study is undervalued (Is-

lam et al., 2018; Ibrahim and Nat, 2019).

The said problems cause students’ passive posi-

tion at blended learning, lack of classroom atmo-

sphere and interactivity, losing their cognitive inter-

est, not satisfactory academic results, which ﬁnally

leads to decreasing of students’ motivation to master

educational content and obtain top level professional

expertise.

Thus, it is essential to ﬁnd out the approaches to

motivation boosting based on the involving students

into the blended learning activities enriched with in-

teractive methods.

The aim of the paper is to elaborate and cover the

ways of raising students’ motivation at blended learn-

ing and to probe them at user interface mastering in

the progress of the university students’ training.

2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Theoretical framework of the research is made by the

analysis of the (1) fundamentals of motivation the-

ory; (2) main characteristics of blended learning and

its typical learning techniques used in the practice of

blended learning; (3) basic approaches to the master-

ing of the fundamentals of user interface design in the

training of different specialists.

According to motivation theory and its educa-

tional dimensions, motivation to learn is deﬁned as

the personal efforts which encourage to learning ac-

tivities, ensure their continuity and point direction to

the activities with the aim at achievement of student’s

desired goals (Puspitasari, 2012). Learning motiva-

tion is seen as a psychological factor that plays a role

in raising the spirit of learning for individuals. Moti-

vation to learn is characterized as a drive of the tuto-

rial process and signiﬁcantly contributes to reaching

the goal of taking the beneﬁt from the learning, what

is especially essential for professional university edu-

cation.

It is also underlined by the researchers the tight

connection between motivation and academic results

of a student. It is recommended to analyze the factors

which inﬂuence the learning outcomes in the context

of learning motivation that is considered as a neces-

sary requirement for studying, providing enthusiasm

in overcoming leaning difﬁculties (Alderfer, 1969).

Some experts also look at learning motivation as at

the student’s eagerness to do the learning activities

driven by the desire to achieve the best achievement

and academic results (Sofyan and Uno, 2004).

According to Keller (Keller, 1987), the most com-

mon factors that affect motivation in the process of

learning are: attention, appealing to learner’s past ex-

perience, positive attitude, and satisfaction. It is ar-

gued that provision of all these ingredients may pro-

mote and sustain motivation throughout the learning

process (Keller, 1987, 2010). It is also formulated

core rules that have to be met in the progress of tu-

toring to provide these components (Huang and Hew,

2016).

According to the ﬁrst rule, a variety of learning

strategies should be implemented to attract and re-

tain learners’ attention. The second rule recommends

to set clear instructional goals and provide learners

with educational content which refers to learner’s past

experience (academic or working one). The third

rule which is responsible for shaping student’s conﬁ-

dence says that learning environment should promote

learners’ positive attitude to the tutoring process and

suggest focusing towards success. According to the

fourth rule, it is essential to help students gain satis-

factory feeling.

It is also pointed out that on condition the ﬁrst

three rules are met, students’ overall satisfaction will

be enhanced accordingly (Keller and Kopp, 1987;

Keller, 2010). According to studies (Petsche, 2009;

Ormrod et al., 2019) motivation may have different

kinds of inﬂuence on the student’s learning and their

behavior toward subjects mastering. For instance, the

motivation can: (1) direct learner’s behavior toward

proper aims; (2) lead to increased effort and energy;

(3) raise initiation and persistence in doing learning

activities; (4) strengthen cognitive processes; (5) lead

to better performance.

There are distinguished two kinds of learning mo-

tivation: internal and extrinsic motivation (Petsche,

2009; Ormrod et al., 2019).

Intrinsic motivation typically arises without obvi-

ous reward. As an own reward, a person takes ac-

complishing the task or achieving their goal. Inter-

nally motivated behavior is said to be natural, and is

considered to result in creativity and ﬂexibility, expe-

rience of interest and enjoyment, and in feelings of

being competent and self-determined.

Extrinsic motivation arrives from the outside a

learner, and is driven by the apparent rewards or re-

inforcements for learners to engage them in the ac-

tivities. The motivational rewards may include ver-

bal praise, higher points, special beiges that can lead

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630

to academic privileges, certiﬁcates etc. The external

motivation factors provide student’s satisfaction and

joy which the activity itself and their results may not

give to a learner. Thus, it can be a challenge for ed-

ucational staff to ﬁnd out special stimulus as external

motivation factors to provoke student’s cognitive in-

terest which can lead to raising his internal motivation

and taking pleasure of learning activities and obtained

results.

The process of students’ motivating to learning

is seen as a way of their encouraging to productive

cognitive activities and active mastering of the edu-

cational content. This process has the features of a

certain cycle which is repeated at each segment of

learning on higher level. Therefore, educational staff

have to provide each stage of motivational cycle with

the help of special methods and techniques. Among

them experts distinguish such stimulation techniques

as communicative attack, suggestion, overcoming dif-

ﬁculties, positive expression shaping etc., and empha-

size the increasing role of communication and interac-

tion during learning. In particular, it is recommended

to develop and apply the interactive forms of learning

focused on the provoking students’ cognitive interest

and involving them into productive cognitive activi-

ties. In lots of works it is proved the connection of

motivation with students’ engagement and interactive

strategies of learning which is coordinated perfectly

well with the stimuli both for intrinsic and extrinsic

motivation. It is pointed out, that interactive forms

of learning are able to demonstrate students their per-

sonal role in common productive discussion, to make

them understand the importance of their own contri-

bution into common result, to feel pleasure of learn-

ing, which ﬁnally can inﬂuence on their learning mo-

tivation.

For successful blended leaning implementation,

the introducing of interactive methods is seen also

beneﬁcial (Vakaliuk et al., 2021; Vlasenko et al.,

2021; Dellatola et al., 2020). Thus, it is possible to an-

ticipate the positive impact of enrichment of blended

learning techniques with different kinds of relevant

interactivity on students’ motivation.

Covering main characteristics of blended learning

and current challenges of its implementation in na-

tional higher educational practice, we would like to

emphasize the following aspects.

Blended learning is considered as a combination

of face-to-face and virtual learning, when educational

content is presented and worked out online but with

some features of typical classroom studying. Ac-

cording to Wear and Levenson (Wear and Levenson,

2020), the core goal of the virtual learning is to pro-

vide the access to education with technology support

and enable a learner to achieve their personal educa-

tional targets. The ﬁnal outcome of virtual learning

is a distant learning provided by an online learning

management system. These online systems enable

trainees to get access to the necessary materials and

trainers’ responses at their outworking from any point

with the Internet access. This model of blended learn-

ing is called online driver. However, it is concluded

that the model is not effective enough, because the

students’ learning activity is not managed by the edu-

cational staff.

Researchers and practitioners ﬁnd more appropri-

ate for higher education two other blended learning

models: ﬂex model (mostly focuses on the online

learning with trainers’ support during online stud-

ies on a ﬂexible basis) and rotation model (provides

interchanging of in-person and online tutorial pro-

cess). Their main beneﬁts are sufﬁcient levels of the

control over the students’ learning, and of ﬂexibil-

ity, as the learners are provided with tailored learning

techniques and platforms designed regarding blended

learning strategy. In particular, the researchers and

practitioners (Adel and Dayan, 2021; Wear and Lev-

enson, 2020) point out that the learning systems in

ﬂex and rotation models are ought to be designed tak-

ing into account core features of the national educa-

tional systems, current peculiarities of tutoring pro-

cess, trainees’ needs etc.

In this connection, it is also emphasized that

within any model of blended learning, it is essential

to pick up proper learning techniques, which causes

necessity to analyze common ones, available in the

practice of blended learning. There are described

some attempts to create the system of blended learn-

ing activities which might provide trainees with a total

learning model, successfully using digital technolo-

gies and blending them with conventional learning

techniques (Wear and Levenson, 2020). In the terms

of blended learning, in particular, it is pointed out the

beneﬁt of using the system of the learning methodolo-

gies such as ﬂipped learning approach, gamiﬁcation

strategy, digital storytelling, team work, cooperative

learning and others. However, other researchers ar-

gue that these kinds of learning activity systems are

not efﬁcient enough for students’ motivation raising,

and must be improved in the lines of attracting rather

interactive methods into said blended learning tech-

niques regarding the challenges in terms of efﬁcient

communication (Dellatola et al., 2020).

Among the inﬂuential factors of successful elabo-

ration of blended learning in higher education, it is

also relevant to include the factor of regarding the

speciﬁcs of the subject area and the features of exact

academic subject due to the great variety of majors

Raising Studentsâ

Z Motivation in Terms of Blended Learning: The Example of Interface Design Mastering

631

and difference of the curriculum disciplines. There-

fore, the blended learning of the speciﬁc subject has

to involve the trainees into special kinds of learning

activities which are able to inﬂuence on their motiva-

tion to master exactly this subject domain and for the

trainees of the exact major. The said learning activ-

ities must be selected in accordance with the proper

educational content, also designed regarding the pe-

culiarities of training the speciﬁc pre-service special-

ists.

Here we would like to cover authors’ approaches

to the mastering of the fundamentals of user inter-

face design in the training of different specialists, par-

tially based on our previous works (Bilousova et al.,

2021b,a).

The focus on the educational challenges in this

ﬁeld is caused by the evidence of the national course

on the digitalization of economy which raises the ur-

gency of the training high level specialists in differ-

ent areas who have advanced digital skills. Among

such skills there is a competence in the ﬁeld of user

interface and user experience design (UI/UX design)

which is essential today for a wide range of pro-

fessionals from pure IT specialists to the experts in

digital products development, marketing and human-

computer interaction.

In our earlier works we presented special ap-

proach to the curriculum building for students’ train-

ing in this area which was elaborated with understand-

ing that UI/UX design is complicated subject domain

that integrates the set of related areas, like graph-

ical design, software development, digital products

promotion, psychology, engineering, ergonomics and

others. Thus, a designer is expected to master special

inter-discipline knowledge and skills.

Characterizing our approach to the curriculum and

educational content building for potential specialists’

learning of the basics of UI/UX design, we would

point out that it was also created based on the anal-

ysis of the essence of the UI/UX design and role of its

mastering in the vocational training of different spe-

cialists.

In fact, the UI design rather focuses on the product

appearance and supplies exactly interaction functions

(Bilousova et al., 2021b). UI design is developed on

some core regulations shaped regarding mostly the

psychological features of the human perception of in-

formation, inﬂuence of visual language on this pro-

cess, peculiarities of human interaction with devices

and their software (Mikhnova, 2019). UX design dif-

fers from UI type of design. It is understood by the ex-

perts as a tool for provision of the best user’s impres-

sion, practice and satisfaction of the interaction with

the product of any kind (Platonova, 2019). It rests

on the deep understanding of the user’s proﬁle, their

needs and requirements; functionality of the product;

possible user’s behavior etc.

However, the both types of design are two sides

of the same process and serve the same purpose of

the best ﬁnal marketing result, using different means.

Hence, the mastering of the UI/UX fundamentals by

the students of different branches should rest on un-

derstanding of some unique postulates and common

instruments, and at the same time reﬂect the state-of-

art tendencies in design shaped in different branches.

Thus, it was offered the practically-driven ap-

proach to the building of educational content for

learning of UI/UX design basics which expects sep-

aration of the two parts (stable and varying) in the

curriculum of the potential specialists’ training.

The stable part includes the modules covering

general fundamentals of the design that rest on com-

mon principles and must be mastered by the design-

ers in any sphere. It was justiﬁed (Bilousova et al.,

2021b) the structure and content of three academic

modules of the stable part of the curriculum. The ﬁrst

module “Psychological base of visual perception” is

aimed at forming the students’ knowledge for realiz-

ing the psychological mechanisms and features of vi-

sual information perception. In addition, in the mod-

ule it is discussed widely the psychological signiﬁ-

cance of the graphical image semantics due to the

involvement of various information channels (logi-

cal, aesthetic, semantic) and their roles in the shap-

ing of visual image in human mind (Mikhnova, 2019;

Platonova, 2019).

Next module “Graphic interface design” of the

stable part is dedicated to mastering basics of the

graphical interface creation based on the principles

of visual language application. Here it is learnt how

to create and render the interface ideas using col-

ors, typography, imagery, bootstraps etc., how to add

visual anchors, and how to make interface function

smoothly and in user-centric way. Thus, the module

gives the trainees understanding of the peculiarities of

both types of design and at the same time, their joint

role in the successful interface creation. The ﬁnal

module “Tools for interface design” of the stable part

of the UI/UX design university curriculum is expected

to focus on practical work in one of the common en-

vironments (for example, in Figma) for the interface

development. In fact, Figma is known an online de-

sign tool which enables to make mockups, interactive

animations, and efﬁcient apps prototypes (Bilousova

et al., 2021b; Mikhnova, 2019). Figma environment

also arranges version control, joint work opportuni-

ties, code generation and other essential features. In

such a way, regarding Figma facilities, the process of

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632

the clickable prototype design is greatly coordinated

with the multi-step process towards the software de-

velopment, demonstrating the role of both UI and UX

design at each stage of this practice. This promotes

cultivating of the best experience for potential design-

ers in any sphere. Thus, Figma is seen to be a state-of-

art universal instrument of a designer and it is really

beneﬁcial for the trainees of different majors to master

basics of UI/UX design on Figma platform. Finally,

resting on the psychological knowledge and design

skills obtained in the previous modules, the students

will apply this methodology within the third module

to produce a digital prototypes of their apps, working

out the UI/UX design mastery.

The stable part of the UI/UX design curriculum

of the potential specialists’ training, according to our

approach to the building of educational content, must

be extended by the modules of varying part. They

are recommended to concentrate on the learning other

special tools appropriate for solving interface design

problems in different subject domains including the

facilities of a number of environments (such as Adobe

Photoshop, Adobe XD, InVision, Sketch, Adobe Il-

lustrator etc.) (Bilousova et al., 2021b).

Thus, the theoretical framework depicted above

served a basis for our research covered in the follow-

ing up chapters.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 The Ways of Enrichment of the

Blended Learning Techniques with

Interactive Methods

Basing on the provided theoretical framework, we are

going to present distinguished learning methodolo-

gies (ﬂipped learning approach, gamiﬁcation strategy,

digital storytelling, cooperative learning etc.) within

the ﬂex model of blended learning, and to offer the

ways how to enrich them with interactive methods,

which can make them more efﬁcient in terms of im-

proving students’ motivation.

Flipped learning is seen by researchers as an ed-

ucational approach where the conventional outlook

of classroom-based studying is inverted in the lines

of offering trainees to master the certain educational

content before the classroom time (Dellatola et al.,

2020). Therefore, the learners come to class be-

ing ready to discuss the familiar content with their

peers and teacher that enables extended understand-

ing through debating and problem-solving activities

arranged by the educational staff. In terms of blended

learning, ﬂipped classroom seems to be commonly

applicable and organic. Nevertheless, its implemen-

tation takes special teacher’s efforts to arrange and

facilitate students’ interaction (discussion, efﬁcient

feedback, collaborative problem-solving, etc.) during

online classes on the interface design mastering.

Different productive methodology which is avail-

able in blended learning is gamiﬁcation strategy that

allows to apply game-playing practices used in non-

game contexts. It is emphasized, that attracting game

elements into educational area provokes students’ es-

sential needs for their motivation (in particular, the

needs to communicate, interact and cooperate with

others, to feel own expertise in a certain area, and to

control their own actions). According to studies, gam-

iﬁcation techniques implementation is able to pro-

mote collaboration and raise communication, which

is signiﬁcantly important for ﬂex model of blended

learning. Some researchers also emphasize the essen-

tial feature of the strategy to apply game-based mech-

anisms and game thinking to diversify learning, to

raise students’ eagerness to study, and solve offered

non-conventional problems (Zainuddin et al., 2020).

Besides the common application of the gamiﬁca-

tion methodology, for blended learning there might

be also beneﬁcial to use a gamiﬁcation variant in the

lines of the encouraging students to design a gamiﬁed

product. Such an activity enables to trigger off gam-

iﬁcation mechanisms, on condition of having enough

importance for the trainees, involved into the cre-

ation of the gamiﬁed product, which can stimulate

their sense of discovery and encourage them to mas-

ter challenging material to develop a good product.

At the same time, according to the theoretical back-

ground of the gamiﬁed products development (Dichev

and Dicheva, 2017), the trainees have to follow some

principles which are signiﬁcant in the context of the

user interface design mastering. In particular, it is es-

sential for a potential user of the gamiﬁed product to

feel that the game has a feasible goal exactly for him.

Therefore, the product must have clear reward sys-

tem and demonstrate individual user’s progress along

with its identiﬁcation within other players who try to

achieve the same target. It should make both compe-

tition and a feeling of belonging to a similar minded

community. In addition, it is necessary to mind at the

design of a gamiﬁed product that its main aim is to

stimulate users to play the game trying to overcome

difﬁculties in order to raise their scores. Thus, gam-

iﬁcation strategy using in blended mastering of user

interface design may be beneﬁcial on condition of its

didactically correct application.

Besides ﬂipped learning and gamiﬁcation strate-

gies, it is also recommended to apply digital sto-

Raising Studentsâ

Z Motivation in Terms of Blended Learning: The Example of Interface Design Mastering

633

rytelling as a productive blended leaning technique.

Digital storytelling is understood as a practice when

people apply digital tools to tell and share their nar-

ratives which have a special purpose and devoted to

important topic, presented in emotional way, and can

be interactive. A digital story can be determined as

a multimedia presentation that comprises a variety

of digital components to convey the target audience

a narrative. Besides, digital narratives may be pre-

sented as web-based stories, interactive stories, nar-

rative computer games and other types of multimedia

products (Rutta et al., 2021).

According to studies and evidence (Rutta et al.,

2021; Sagri et al., 2018), the digital storytelling ap-

proach has also been introduced in education. Merg-

ing images, sounds and plot within digital story en-

ables to reinforce concepts being appropriate to dif-

ferent learning types of trainees. It is pointed out

that digital storytelling can be used by educators with

different didactic purposes: to introduce new learn-

ing material, to facilitate its discussion by students, to

help them get a deeper understanding of complicated

concepts etc.

In addition, students can be also encouraged to

create their own digital stories devoted to some learn-

ing elements and pursuer a certain pedagogical aim.

Such learning activity can provide important bene-

ﬁts for the students. Through the stories making they

have to analyze, synthesize, and ﬁnally to take own-

ership of the information they are presenting. These

things provoke higher-level thinking and raise respon-

sibility. In this context, comic-based digital story-

telling can play signiﬁcant role. In particular, it is

underlined that student-generated comic-based digital

story is a learning technique when trainees create per-

sonalized comics to achieve a didactic purpose. This

activity can facilitate mastering difﬁcult (or contro-

versial) academic material and work out their research

skills. Finally, created by the students digital stories

of any type may be used as efﬁcient learning aids and

curricular resources.

Among different activities applicable to blended

learning, group work plays special role. Group work

(or cooperative learning) is characterized as an in-

structional strategy when groups of trainees work to-

gether upon a common assignment. Usually, each

group participant is individually responsible for a part

of the task and has to contribute into the common

result. There are some key points which ensure the

success of the group work: students should feel re-

sponsibility for their share of work and interdepen-

dence on the results of other peers; the group should

be accountable for achieving its goal; face-to-face stu-

dents’ interaction and mutual support; group partici-

pants should obtain instructions in the interpersonal,

social, and collaborative skills necessary to work with

others.

It is clear that some of the mentioned key points

are really challenging in terms of their realization at

blended learning. Some challenges also include as-

sessing of the each person’s contribution, resolving

conﬂicts etc., which demands development of spe-

cial learning strategies. Carefully prepared activities

can help students obtain the skills to work together

successfully, structured discussion and reﬂection on

group work can predict and avoid some problems.

Thus, as it was mentioned above, the discussed

kinds of blended learning activities should be inno-

vated with the help of introducing interactive methods

of learning to raise the level and quality of commu-

nication. According to Edgar Dale’s cone of experi-

ence, we can conclude in favor of interactive methods,

that after two weeks we tend to remember 50% of the

material that we see and hear (option of passive learn-

ing) and up to 90% of what we say and do ourselves

(option of active learning) (Dellatola et al., 2020).

In contrast to just active learning, interactive ap-

proach provides trainees’ interaction not only with the

teacher but with each other as well. It is characterized

by the researchers as a form of learning and commu-

nicative activities in which trainees are involved into

contemplation on their own knowledge, estimation of

their own abilities, skills etc. in comparing with their

peers. Teacher’s role changes drastically, as the in-

teractive learning concentrates rather on the trainees’

interests, needs, and abilities. Learners become active

participants of the tutoring process and not only per-

ceive information. Being engaged by the learning ac-

tivity and based on their experience, students have to

activate their knowledge and abilities, earn new skills,

shape their attitude towards learnt material, and ex-

press their opinions.

The teacher’s mission in interactive learning is

shifted towards achieving the students’ goals. The

teacher has to arrange interactive forms of work and

tasks, working upon which students receive new in-

formation, and an individual assignment is trans-

formed into a group task where each member of the

group contributes to the whole group’s success.

Some basic types of interactivity are distinguished

by the researchers: (1) individual interaction of the

trainee and the learning content; (2) interaction be-

tween the trainee and the teacher who encourages

trainee’s motivation via offering them exciting learn-

ing material and stimulating to apply knowledge

for solving speciﬁc tasks; (3) interaction between

peers and teacher that expects involving the students

into the interaction among themselves, an individual

AET 2021 - Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

634

trainee with other students in the group (with or with-

out the teacher) (Dellatola et al., 2020).

The last type of interaction seems to give the high-

est degree of the students’ involvement in to the learn-

ing activity, which may cause the raise of the stu-

dents’ motivation to the subject learning. However,

it is expected to be the most challenging to achieve,

especially in terms of blended learning focused on

remote mode. Thus, it is essential to apply certain

interactive teaching methods that can guarantee efﬁ-

cient involvement of students in the interactive learn-

ing process. In fact, there is no general classiﬁcation

of such methods. However, it is possible to distin-

guish some of them which have special meaning in

the context of their using in terms of blended learning

in higher education. These methods may include lec-

tures of selected kinds (inquiry-based, with deliberate

errors, with the analysis of the speciﬁc situation etc.);

game methods (business games, imitations, role-

playing); debate methods (mini-conferences, semi-

nars, Socratic dialogue, case studies); group solution

method; project making.

3.2 Probation in Terms of User

Interface Design Mastering

This subsection intends to demonstrate how the said

activities (ﬂipped learning, gamiﬁcation, storytelling

etc.) were enhanced with interactive methods in the

process of blended learning of the course “User in-

terface design basics” within the curriculum modules

presented above in the progress of training of the uni-

versity students’ of different specialties.

Blended learning was implemented in its ﬂex

model when all the course materials were available

for the students on the distant learning platform and

there were delivered online (via Zoom, Google Meet

etc.) lectures and practical studies according to com-

mon schedule including online consultations.

In the progress of going through the ﬁrst course

module dedicated to psychological fundamentals of

visual perception that makes essential basis for user

interface design there were applied mostly ﬂipped

learning and gamiﬁcation strategies which were en-

hanced by different interactive methods.

For example, one of the ﬂipped learning lectures

on the topic of psychological mechanisms of data per-

ception was held as an online mini-conference. There

were assigned (in advance) different tasks to the pairs

of students to learn proper theoretical material on

the features of different data perception, to ﬁnd out

proper examples which illustrate peculiarities of hu-

man vision and their connection with interface design,

and to elaborate presentation to take part in the mini-

conference both as presenters and listeners.

For instance, one of the students’ pairs had to

learn physiological background of human perception

of printed information. The students worked indepen-

dently with digital sources to understand how our ve-

locity of reading depends on the number of characters

available for perception by our vision, and how this

feature can be accounted at the interface design. Dur-

ing the ﬂipped learning lecture hold in the form of

online mini-conference which aimed at the exchange

of results of the tasks assigned to different pairs of

students, this pair gave a presentation on the results

of their ﬁndings. In particular, they explained that

the efﬁciency of reading depends in linear way on the

amount of characters visible by eyes, and covered the

reason of this fact based on psychological underly-

ing of human eyes’ parabolic movements similar to

discrete leaps between words during reading. They

also attracted the listeners’ attention to the paradox

of this cognitive and psychological phenomena, be-

cause despite their non-smooth nature, our eyes jumps

improve our reading abilities, as we use the sense of

skipped adjacent context to decrease the time of our

comprehension of the read information.

The rest of the students who were listeners at the

moment, were encouraged by the presenters and the

teacher to discuss the connection of these ﬁndings

with the problems of efﬁcient interface. In particular,

the listeners were attracted to speculation and making

conclusions on the (1) efﬁciency of perception of iso-

lated words and words connected into the long phrase;

(2) the difference between task-driven and content-

driven user interface; (3) the dependence of the ef-

ﬁciency of text comprehension in these types of inter-

face; (4) the typographic decision-making at the in-

terface design etc. In the end, the students-presenters

supported the prepared discussion with the visual ex-

amples of the both types of user interface illustrating

fruitful and non-fruitful using of these psychological

peculiarities.

In similar way there was also arranged presenta-

tions of the results of the ﬂipped learning tasks by the

rest of the students’ pairs with involvement other lis-

teners into similar interactive debates. The group so-

lutions ﬁnding during these mini-conferences within

the ﬁrst module were productively used by the stu-

dents while their mastering subsequent modules.

For instance, in the progress of the interface de-

sign of potential web-application prototypes worked

out at the workshops of the second module, there was

used specially created interactive card game, focused

on the involving the trainees in the analysis of apply-

ing various psychological techniques. Original card

deck Mental Notes, suggested by Anderson (Ander-

Raising Studentsâ

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635

son, 2009) presents over 50 insights from psychology,

and can be used as an efﬁcient brainstorming tool.

Each card depicts an insight into human behavior and

represents ways to apply this one to the user interface

design. Selected samples of digital cards with insights

are presented in ﬁgure 1.

Figure 1: Selected samples of digital cards with insights

into human behavior, representing the ways how to apply

them to the user interface design.

The original card deck was transformed into in-

teractive didactic game with digital “cards” and was

virtually played during online workshop. At the ini-

tial stage of the game the students were assigned the

topics of their potential web-application to speculate

over its probable users, their targets, tasks, applica-

tion functions etc. As the game starts, the participants

“choose” in turn a card from the deck, which presents

a psychological technique (insight) used in the current

practice of user interface design such insights as: cu-

riosity, social proof, reciprocity, regularity establish-

ing and others.

The participants (individually or in pairs) analyze

the insight presented in the card, then they explain

and prove their decision as for how they can use this

insight at the interface design of their potential appli-

cation: which elements of visual language and how it

is relevant to apply; what means of typography, color,

and graphical images and why will be right to use; the

insight is going (or is not going) to be successful ex-

actly for their application, according to the results of

their initial speculations. The rest of the players are

involved by the teacher into active discussion of the

presented solutions and into collective decision mak-

ing.

In terms of motivation raising, such a game play-

ing provoked students’ cognitive interest to the topic;

facilitated their understanding of effective psycholog-

ical techniques and beneﬁts of their using in interface

design; promoted ﬂuent communication on the pro-

fessional topic, which ﬁnally led to joy feelings of the

students and motivated them to be active participant

of the tutorial process.

After the game the trainees may use the whole

deck of the mental cards with variety of psycholog-

ical techniques. As a game extension, the students are

encouraged to apply at least ﬁve of the insights in the

design of their interface prototype with their sequen-

tial presentations for the group.

In addition, the whole tutorial process on interface

design mastering was immersed into the game on-

line environment Classcraft, which enabled us to ap-

ply successfully gamiﬁcation strategy. The environ-

ment allows to maintain gamiﬁcation approach during

any academic period, and encourages a trainee to go

through the course sections individually or within the

group, solving practical tasks, tests, and quests, delib-

erately created by the teacher for all the course mod-

ules, and earning game bonuses of different kinds.

In order to add interactivity into this gamiﬁed

blended learning, we arranged the role playing game

within Classcraft and involved individual students

into the team role game, when each student should

choose a character (a role of a Wizard, Warrior, Healer

etc.) with proper skills, and cooperatively learn a

topic via doing quests. The quests were prepared re-

AET 2021 - Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

636

garding the educational content and didactic purpose

of the module.

For example, during the work within the second

module “Graphic interface design” there were pre-

pared the quests on the number of topics. One of

them was the quest “Brief creation for UI design”

which encouraged students to go through some quest

stations. To overcome “Avatar” station, it was neces-

sary to identify a character (in fact, a potential user)

who is a target audience for the designing interface.

The second station “Competitors” involved the stu-

dents into analysis of the possible competitors of the

interface design for potential user and sphere of their

activity. Next quest station expected students to de-

velop a chart of basic use cases for the developing

interface. The ﬁnal quest station “Visualization” en-

couraged students into determination of proper color

palette and fonts as well as into picking up certain

tools for the realization of different stages of the in-

terface design regarding the analysis results obtained

in previous quest stations.

At each quest station the students received speci-

ﬁed tasks with exact scheme of actions. For example,

at “Competitors” station (ﬁgure 2) the trainees’ were

focused on the analysis of strong and weak points

of the competitors’ interface design with subsequent

concentration on successful and non-fruitful design

solutions which led students to their unique design

outlook for the identiﬁed user.

Figure 2: The episode of work at the quest station “Com-

petitors” in the team game “Brief creation for UI design”.

While overcoming the learning quests in the team,

each participant used their skills according to their

role and tried to contribute the best into the com-

mon results, doing quest tasks and earning differ-

ent bonuses (Experience Points, Gold Pieces, Crys-

tals, and Health) which gave them various additional

opportunities and helped their team to achieve best

learning results in the most effective way. Thus, the

awareness of their personal responsibility for the team

ﬁnal success deﬁnitely raised the students’ motivation

to learn more and contribute more to feel the pride of

the common academic result.

The trainees were also encouraged to solve the

Boss Battles tests in the Classcraft game environment

with the option of both individual and team work,

which is the most beneﬁcial in terms of raising mo-

tivation at blended learning. Doing the tests by the

whole team prompted the students’ interactivity, as

only the joint and well thought efforts of each partic-

ipant could bring the success to the team. In addition,

Boss Battles option enables team members to give and

get mutual help while test doing, which raised com-

mon responsibility and team spirit.

On the Classcraft gamiﬁed platform it was also or-

ganized students’ group work upon real-life tasks. For

instance, within the third module focused on master-

ing Figma tools for interface design, the students were

assigned to build a dynamic prototype of the site with

landing pages in Figma environment. The full assign-

ment was formulated as follows.

Let us imagine, that you are a marketing direc-

tor of a company which is a new player in the coffee

trade market. The company buy coffee beans from

Latin America, fry, blend, and mix them ourselves.

Currently, there are three blends that are available for

selling, and the company are working on adding three

new ones. The company is concentrated rather on the

retailers, but there is also have an offer for special-

ized retail chains, restaurants and other wholesalers.

The company need to develop a site to talk about the

company (services, offers etc.) and about coffee in

general. In addition, the company is going to sell pre-

pared blends via the site.

To solve this real-life problem and make a full-

functioning dynamic site prototype in Figma, we of-

fered students to create three groups, according to the

roles which are typically fulﬁlled by interface design-

ers at the different stages of the prototype developing.

Therefore, there were selected the groups of Analyt-

ics, Developers, and Testers.

The didactic beneﬁt of such group work on Class-

craft platform in terms of blended learning is seen in

following. Each group has to realize perfectly well

the aim and essence of work at each stage of the pro-

totype creation, and to allocate the roles inside the

group correspondently. Thus, the students (with the

teacher’s help) have to interact with each other within

the group in order to discuss and understand its spe-

ciﬁc task, ﬁnal goal of the whole group, and the im-

portance of their results for the success of other two

groups who realize their own mission in the iterative

process of the dynamic prototype development.

For example, the group of Analytics was encour-

aged by the teacher to hold debates with the help

of, for instance, Socratic method of discussion as a

kind of cooperative argumentative discussion based

on asking and responding questions to provoke stu-

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637

dents’ critical thinking and come with fruitful ideas.

In particular, the set of issues for discussion by the

Analytics for the understanding of their group mis-

sion included the following questions:

1. Who are our potential users?

2. What may be their age, education, needs, prefer-

ences etc.?

3. What tasks do the users want to solve via the site?

4. How are they going to solve their problems?

5. Which beneﬁts from the users’ standpoint can the

site interface provide?

6. How to collect the said data from the users?

7. How can the collected information about users

and their potential behavior on the site help the

group of Developers? Is it essential also for

Testers group? and others.

As a result of these argumentative debates, the

group can obtain comprehensive understanding of

their role in the whole iterative process of the pro-

totype design, and can easily allocate the roles within

the group with understanding by each member their

own duties, responsibilities and scope of necessary in-

teraction with members of other groups.

Similar debates were prepared and held in the

groups of Developers and Testers. At some stages

of work, it was initiated by the teacher interaction

all the groups together in order to analyze the mid-

dle results of group work, such as Use Case diagram,

Sequence diagram, mockups etc. built by the Devel-

opers group basing on the recommendations of the

Analytics group. It helped to correlate the previous

Analytics work, improve the Developers work imme-

diately and avoid drawbacks and mistakes which may

be revealed by the Testers group.

Analyzing the progress of the presented group

work upon real-life tasks which also had a character

of a role playing game, we would conclude the fol-

lowing. This form of work brought obvious interest

and joy both to students and teacher, which caused a

fruitful inﬂuence on the students’ attitude to learning

process and its results.

In particular, we could monitor appearing true in-

centives to learning, and arising motivation to classes

preparation as well as to active participation in com-

mon work.

Emotional involvement into the group game ac-

cording to their personal role and practical value of

the tasks, made students keep educational content

longer in their memory, speculate on it before and af-

ter classes, which provoked their inquisitiveness and

enhanced their cognitive interest.

Therefore, it is possible to anticipate that such

kind of blended learning technique enriched with in-

teractive methods can have a positive impact on the

students’ motivation.

Digital storytelling as a common blended learning

technique was also implemented in the process of in-

terface design mastering within all the modules. We

would like to demonstrate the example of creation of

student-generated comic-based story in the progress

of learning psychological basics of interface design

which had a didactic purpose to investigate the inﬂu-

ence of color pallet on the emotional stay of a user

and implementation of its impact in the interface de-

velopment.

At the preparation stage of the comics’ creation

the trainees were stimulated to discuss in group the

issues which could help direct them during this cre-

ative task:

1. What is the goal of telling your story?

2. Who is the target audience of your digital story?

3. What feelings, emotions and ideas would you like

to convey to the target audience?

4. What are the steps of your plot? How can you

sequence the story with a beginning, middle part

and ﬁnal?

5. Which tools could be used to create your digital

comic-based story? Which of them ﬁt better for

your idea and why? etc.

After this group solution ﬁndings, the students

came to the core stage of the digital story making, ac-

cording to their plot, and applying some of the graphic

design tools on their choice.

Then, the groups of students demonstrated their

comics and “told” their digital stories on the said topic

during online practical classes.

Other trainees were engaged in the critical watch-

ing of their peers’ digital stories. Therefore, at this

stage student-generated digital stories served as cases

that allowed involving all of the trainees into effec-

tive case studies, which added interactivity in the sto-

rytelling learning approach, raised the degree of stu-

dents’ participation in the tutorial process, which ob-

viously affected their motivation.

In addition, the students were informed that their

digital stories will be implemented as learning aids

for further generations of trainees in the relevant in-

terface design courses, which had a positive impact

on the students’ self-estimation, raised their responsi-

bility, provoked their desire to contribute the best, and

ﬁnally inﬂuenced on their learning motivation.

Episodes of one of student-generated comic-based

digital stories where trainees expressed their ideas (in

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638

Ukrainian) for associated meaning of different colors

are given in ﬁgure 3(a)-(c)). In particular, in their dig-

ital story the students tried to render the associations

of colors with our feelings and emotions: white – hor-

ror, black – grief, green – envy, pink – pleasure, pur-

ple – evil, light – happiness.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3: (a-c) Episodes of the student-generated digital

stories on associated meaning of different colors (the ex-

planations are given in the text above).

3.3 Preparation of the Survey on the

Estimation of Students’ Motivation

In order to estimate the level of the students’ motiva-

tion to learning it is necessary to elaborate its criteria,

develop their indicators, and determine the levels of

their revealing.

As it was mentioned above, according to psycho-

logical background of motivation theory and its edu-

cational aspects, motivation to learn is deﬁned as the

personal efforts which encourage trainees to learning

activities, ensure their continuity and concentrate a

trainee on the activities with the aim at achievement

of their desired goals. Among the most inﬂuential fac-

tors which affect student motivation are called atten-

tion, appealing to learner’s past experience, positive

attitude, and satisfaction.

Resting on this understanding of the learning mo-

tivation, and minding core rules for design of tutorial

process and environment regarding motivation rais-

ing, we managed to elaborate several indicators and

their levels. The core rules were presented in the the-

oretical framework chapter and can be formulated in

brief as follows:

1. to apply methods for attraction and retaining

learners’ attention;

2. to set clear instructional goals and provide learn-

ers with educational content which refers to

learner’s needs and experience (academic and/or

working one);

3. to shape student’s conﬁdence, creating learning

environment which enables to promote learners’

positive attitude to the tutoring process and sug-

gest focusing towards success;

4. to create conditions to help students gain satisfac-

tory feeling.

The survey was designed to evaluate whether

the interactive methods introducing into the blended

learning activities is in line with the aforementioned

rules and detect what students’ motivation levels are.

The survey consists of 20 items comprising 4 sub-

sections corresponding to the amount of the rules.

Each subsection included 5 items to get a feedback

from the students on each motivation dimension. It

measures learners’ motivation level by applying a

5-point Likert-type scale (1 is strongly agree; 5 is

strongly disagree).

Subsection 1 (attention) included the following

questions.

Q1 There was some thought-provoking content of

the course that got my attention.

Q2 I attended online classes with desire because

there were used variety of gripping activities.

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639

Q3 Communication with other students during de-

bates and discussion helped hold my attention.

Q4 I was eager to attend classes because there usu-

ally were some things that were surprising or unex-

pected.

Q5 This course has things that stimulated my cu-

riosity and I speculated about the learning material

after classes.

Subsection 2 (appealing to learner’s needs and

experience) included the following set of items.

Q6 It is clear to me how the content of this course

is associated with the things I already know.

Q7 I was involved into the work upon the tasks

that demonstrated me how this course material could

be useful to me and some other people.

Q8 Completing this course successfully was es-

sential to me.

Q9 The content and style of the course material

mastering is relevant to my needs and interests.

Q10 There are explanations, examples, cases etc.

of how to use the competence from the course in daily

professional activity.

Subsection 3 (positive attitude) included the fol-

lowing items.

Q11 The tutoring process within the course was

entertaining.

Q12 Team interaction during material mastering

suggested me conﬁdence in my abilities to succeed in

the course.

Q13 When I had learning difﬁculties, I felt conﬁ-

dent that I could overcome them with my peers’ help.

Q14 During online classes I felt myself happy as

if I learnt material with my peers in real classroom.

Q15 As I worked on this course, I was conﬁdent

that I could learn the content.

Subsection 4 (satisfaction) included the following

items.

Q16 Completing the tasks and presenting my re-

sults in front of the group during online classes gave

me a satisfying feeling of accomplishment.

Q17 I enjoyed this course so much that I would

like to know more about this topic.

Q18 I really enjoyed when I contributed my exper-

tise into the common result of my team going through

the course material.

Q19 The sounding of feedback during and after

the exercises in this course helped me feel rewarded

for my effort.

Q20 It was a pleasure to work on the course in

such a friendly and cooperative atmosphere.

To obtain preliminary results and test the designed

survey reliability, it was conducted in one of the

groups of pre-service IT specialists who completed

the course “User interface design basics” in terms of

blended learning activities enhanced with interactive

methods and built according to our modules depicted

above. In total, 27 students took part in the survey.

The scale reliability test was conducted to es-

timate the result. The reliability of all the four

scales (for each motivation dimension) on standard-

ized Cronbach Alpha was 0.75 (n = 27 on 20 items),

which proved an acceptable reliability of the obtained

result (Glen, 2023).

3.4 Discussion of the Preliminary

Results

The average score of the students’ motivation level

as for all motivation dimensions, detected during the

survey is presented in table 1.

Table 1: The average score of the students’ motivation level

(n = 27)

Motivation dimensions (5 items each)

Average

score

Attention 3.42

Appealing to learner’s needs and experience 3.61

Positive attitude 3.65

Satisfaction 3.63

Overall (20 items) 3.57

According to the score intervals, we distinguished

four levels of motivation:

• High level (4.0-5.0),

• Intermedium level (3.5-3.99),

• Pre-intermedium level (3.0-3.49),

• Low level (lower than 3.0).

The results of the survey, according to the levels

of students’ motivation are shown in the table 2.

Table 2: Range of students’ motivation level as a result of

the survey.

Motivation level Scores Total N = 27 Percent

High 4.0–5.0 13 48.15%

Intermedium 3.5–3.99 6 22.22%

Pre-intermedium 3.0–3.49 4 14.81%

Low <3.00 4 14.81%

As far as we can judge from the table 2, 13

(48.15%) out of the 27 respondents demonstrated

high motivation level, 6 students (22.22%) had in-

termedium motivation level, 4 respondents (14.81%)

revealed pre-intermedium level, and 4 respondents

(14.81%) demonstrated low motivation levels. Thus,

it was found out that the survey participants were

mostly satisﬁed with the course material and blended

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640

learning techniques enhanced with interactive meth-

ods, with almost half of the respondents who had high

level of motivation, and over 22% of them who re-

vealed intermedium level of motivation to learning.

In addition, characterizing roughly the students’

answers of the survey questions (Q1–Q20), we would

like to emphasize the following.

About 70% of the trainees admitted that they at-

tended online classes with desire because there were

used variety of gripping activities; communication

with other students during debates and discussion

helped hold their attention; the course stimulated their

curiosity and they speculated about the learning ma-

terial after classes.

Over the half of the students said that during the

course doing, they were involved into the work upon

the tasks that demonstrated them how this course ma-

terial could be useful to them in their potential profes-

sional life.

About 63% of the course participants revealed

positive attitude to learning admitting that the tutor-

ing process within the course was entertaining; team

interaction during material mastering suggested them

conﬁdence in their abilities to succeed in the course;

during online classes they felt myself happy as if they

worked with their peers in real classroom.

Finally, about 72% said that they were pleased to

work on the course in such a friendly and cooperative

atmosphere.

The obtained survey results are complemented

with our own observations. It was prepared by us spe-

cial program of monitoring the students’ attendance

and behavior at online classes during different stages

of the course. Our monitoring, according to this pro-

gram, testiﬁed raising the percentage of students’ at-

tendance by 20% in comparing between beginning

and end of the course.

In addition, our observations as for the students’

cognitive behavior allowed to conclude that applied

methods were productive in terms of encouraging

motivation. They helped students feel the class-

room atmosphere during online classes, promoted

their cognitive eagerness to work with remote digi-

tal resources, contributed into effective learning com-

munication, which helped overcome the feeling dis-

connection between the students inherent to blended

learning in its ﬂex model.

It was also monitored the growing of students’

desire to take part in group activities, to reveal

their knowledge and contribute best into the common

group result. It was really pleasant to notice also some

students’ increasing tendency to ﬁnd out additional

learning materials and eagerness to do the tasks of

higher complexity. It was also detected the raising

of overall academic achievements of the group.

Thus, the obtained results of the conducted survey

and our monitoring program may be taken as a basis

for holding the full empirical research for the veri-

ﬁcation of the impact that made the offered blended

learning activities enriched with interactive methods

on the level of students’ motivation and the results

of pre-service specialists’ training. It is planned to

widen respondents’ range to generalize the survey re-

sults and to expand it by clarifying and specifying the

changes made in the research, which makes a prospect

of our work.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The problems of raising students’ motivation in terms

of blended learning implementation at national uni-

versities are discussed in the paper in the context of

interface design mastering by the students of various

specialties.

Based on the recent studies review and educa-

tional practice analysis, it is revealed the urgency of

our research connected with the problems of dropping

students’ motivation to study and to accomplish uni-

versity education in general (students very often are

eager to. It is analyzed that the situation is getting

even worse in terms of blended learning with the fo-

cus to remote tutorial process. Retaining students’

motivation to attend online classes, to earn knowl-

edge and skills and work them out via different typical

learning activities becomes really challenging task for

educational staff.

It is also revealed that the using of the specially de-

veloped learning activities and methods is underesti-

mated by the researchers and practitioners of blended

learning implementation. It underlined the urgency of

enhancing typical blended learning techniques with

interactive methods in order to overcome the core

challenges of the blended learning implementation,

and to raise students’ learning motivation in terms of

current online studying.

Theoretical framework of the research is made by

the analysis of the (1) fundamentals of motivation the-

ory; (2) main characteristics of blended learning and

its typical learning techniques used in the practice of

blended learning; (3) basic approaches to the master-

ing of the fundamentals of user interface design in the

training of different specialists.

In the progress of work, there were analyzed the

core features and challenges of blended learning, and

covered the ways of enrichment of the blended learn-

ing techniques (ﬂipped learning, gamiﬁcation, digital

storytelling, cooperative learning etc.) with interac-

Raising Studentsâ

Z Motivation in Terms of Blended Learning: The Example of Interface Design Mastering

641

tive methods and forms of work.

The experience of interactive methods practical

realization in the process of the user interface design

mastering by university students is presented. It was

demonstrated how the considered leaning techniques

which are typically used at blended learning in its ﬂex

model can be enhanced and enriched via using differ-

ent interactive methods. Exact examples of their ap-

plications in real blended learning process are given.

It is also covered the preparation stage of the sur-

vey on the estimation of the students’ motivation. The

survey was designed to evaluate whether the interac-

tive methods introducing into the blended learning ac-

tivities is in line with the aforementioned rules and

detect what students’ motivation levels are.

The survey consists of 20 items comprising 4

subsections corresponding to the amount of the re-

vealed motivation dimensions (attention, appealing to

learner’s past experience, positive attitude, and satis-

faction).

To obtain preliminary results and test the designed

survey reliability, it was conducted in one of the

groups of pre-service IT specialists who completed

the course “User interface design basics” in terms of

blended learning activities enhanced with interactive

methods and built according to our modules depicted

above. The acceptable reliability of the scales was

proved.

According to the score intervals, there were distin-

guished four levels of motivation. The results of the

survey, according to the levels of students’ motivation

are presented and discussed. There were also given

and discussed the results of the authors’ observations

according to the monitoring program.

It was concluded that the obtained results of the

conducted survey and our monitoring program may

be used potentially as a basis for holding the compre-

hensive empirical research for the veriﬁcation of the

impact which made the offered blended learning ac-

tivities enriched with interactive methods on the level

of students’ motivation and the results of pre-service

specialists’ training. It is planned to widen respon-

dents’ range to generalize the survey results and to

expand it by specifying the changes caused by the

introduced methods, which makes a prospect of our

work.

The prospects of the research also can be focused

on ﬁnding out the most effective combinations of

blended learning techniques and interactive methods

in the process of interface design mastering by the stu-

dents of different ﬁelds.

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