How Can We Leverage Behavioral Economics In Instructional Design?
Originally developed to explore decision-making processes within economic contexts, the field of behavioral economics has spread across disciplines over the years, including Instructional Design. In this field, behavioral economics provides answers on how to shape the design and delivery of instructional material to help learners make better educational choices, overcome challenges, and achieve their goals. Let’s take a look at how behavioral economics can help you elevate your Instructional Design, based on 6 core methods that influence motivation, decision making, and engagement among learners.
6 Ways To Apply Behavioral Economics In Instructional Design
1. Choice Architecture And Micronudges
An irreplaceable aspect of quality Instructional Design is choice architecture. Influencing how learners make decisions, this method attempts to shape the context in which choices are presented and, therefore, perceived. However, it’s not about making learners choose what you want them to. The point is to let them decide what will benefit them the most.
Here, nudges play a powerful role. Guiding learners toward desired actions or behaviors, micronudges are specific, subtle interventions designed to influence learner behavior while maintaining some level of freedom of choice. For example, micronudges could include visual cues, where Instructional Designers highlight important information utilizing icons or specific fonts, or social proof nudges with embedded statements that encourage conformity to positive behaviors, such as “90% of students who successfully completed this lesson passed the final assessment.”
Both choice architecture and micronudges are highly important when it comes to fusing Instructional Design with behavioral economics, as they can aid in constructing effective learning experiences, influence real behavioral change, and ultimately allow learners the freedom, space, and drive to make beneficial decisions for the sake of their own improvement.
2. Reward Systems
An individual rarely undertakes intentional action without some kind of reward in sight. Therefore, establishing a reward system within the learning journey is paramount to enticing learners and ensuring that they form long-term learning habits. Rewards act as checkpoints, each indicating that a milestone has been reached. But don’t forget that they also act as powerful motivators.
One way to approach this would be to offer variable rewards, where, at unexpected intervals, you keep your learners hooked by reminding them that rewards are not guaranteed but possible. This unpredictability activates the brain’s innate reward system, releasing dopamine, which creates a sense of excitement and anticipation, and ultimately encourages repeated engagement with the rewarded behavior.
Still, remember that individuals tend to act with instant gratification in mind—it’s much easier to take action when you know that you’ll be rewarded for your troubles immediately. Make sure to use frequent feedback to reinforce effort and encourage further persistence without overusing other reward elements.
Lastly, keep in mind that extrinsic rewards shouldn’t be the main focus of learning. Intrinsic motivation is much more valuable and sustainable in the long run. So, make sure that your rewards are meaningful and add value to your learners’ journeys. Otherwise, your system will prove ineffective very soon.
3. Precommitment
Studies have shown that precommitment plays an active role in learners’ long-term motivation and achievement. Incorporating opportunities to establish precommitment-related activities can prove extremely useful for the successful combination of Instructional Design with behavioral economics. This strategy typically involves learners publicly declaring their learning goals and even setting potential time frames at the beginning of the learning process. Throughout the learning experience, learners keep track of their progress against their stated goals. When they’ve reached the end of the course, they have to compare their initial declaration with how they actually performed.
By rendering commitment visible, Instructional Designers help learners to hold themselves accountable and remain conscious of their desired achievements. It’s much easier to measure performance and success if they have already established benchmarks, after all. In addition, these efforts encourage post-learning reflection, allowing them to self-assess their own understanding, detect pitfalls, and recognize where they succeeded.
In action, Instructional Designers can effectively incorporate precommitment-related activities by having learners fill out pre-course surveys or sign contracts at the beginning of the learning process, clearly stating what they wish to achieve. For an extra dash of creativity, IDs can even utilize gamification techniques that mark students’ progress as they complete pre-determined tasks to gauge pre- and post-learning performance. Overall, there’s a lot of leeway in how you can leverage precommitment in Instructional Design, so let your imagination run free.
4. Simplification
Simplification can prove quite useful in Instructional Design for various reasons, but especially because it can help reduce overstimulation and cognitive load. When information is presented in large, complex blocks, learners can experience cognitive overload, making it difficult to absorb and retain the material. Simplification helps by breaking down the information into smaller chunks that are easier for the learner to process and comprehend. For example, if you were to use simplification in your new course, you could choose which advanced or overly complex processes you think learners will struggle with and break them down into a step-by-step manual.
This way, you not only succeed in making learning less burdensome and more accessible but you also help your learners remain engaged in the learning process. Without roadblocks to comprehension, your audience can reap the benefits of your course much more easily and effectively for the long haul.
5. Intentional Anchoring
Anchors link new and old information; they serve as the foundation of learning and must be used productively. To successfully leverage them in your Instructional Design efforts, you can strategically incorporate real-world scenarios, stories, or problems to intentionally “anchor” learning and make it meaningful and engaging for learners. Make sure that all intentional anchors utilize learners’ prior knowledge and experiences and connect them with the new information. This facilitates deeper understanding and retention and promotes active knowledge construction.
Some examples of intentional anchoring in Instructional Design can be found in problem-based or case-based learning curricula. Both types encourage learners to participate in rigorous research, analysis, resolution, and reflection, which cements and reinforces knowledge acquisition and post-learning application in the long run. It also clarifies how theoretical situations manifest in real life, which ultimately makes the information acquired significantly more relatable and applicable.
6. Peer Influence And Social Learning
People are more likely to do something if they see others doing the same. Therefore, Instructional Designers can benefit from incorporating social proof and social learning methodologies into their curriculum. Peer influence is not only a significant motivator but also a way to influence and ultimately support learning goals. It’s been long established that learning occurs by observing, imitating, and modeling our peers. For example, when someone takes an action, there are always consequences: good, neutral, or bad. When learners observe the impact of their peers’ actions, they can reflect on their own behavior and adjust it accordingly.
In Instructional Design, you can use peer influence and social learning aspects by incorporating group projects, role-playing activities, peer-mentoring programs, and even simulations. Each of these techniques has its merits, but if you choose a few to combine, you can create a winning blend of learning that harnesses both observation and active participation. This will help you develop impactful learning experiences that also promote interaction and socialization, which are crucial aspects for nurturing well-rounded individuals.
Overcoming Cognitive Biases For Effective Behavioral Economics Application
Cognitive biases can greatly hinder the learning process if Instructional Designers don’t take intentional action to combat them. These biases shape the context and perception of learning as a concept, habit, and practice. Although they are innate responses of the brain, you can alleviate their effects by utilizing behavioral economics insights in your Instructional Design process.
The Endowment Effect
This type of cognitive bias describes how people tend to place greater value on things that they own, rather than those they don’t. We can leverage the endowment effect in Instructional Design and increase motivation and engagement by helping learners cultivate a sense of ownership of their learning journey. This can take the form of symbolic ownership, through personalized learning paths where learners choose how to proceed, or access to specific resources, tools, or privileges (like extended deadlines), which will ultimately motivate them further to utilize and value those resources, and even view them as rewards.
Status Quo Bias
Status quo bias is a form of psychological resistance where individuals prefer the current state of things over change, instead of clearly beneficial alternatives. In a learning context, this type of bias could mean that learners are unwilling to explore new learning methods or technologies, even if they are presented as more useful or beneficial. To overcome this form of cognitive bias, Instructional Designers can highlight the benefits of learning and reframe the concept of change by presenting new ideas or shifts in a positive light to reduce resistance. It’s also important to walk learners through the changes and involve them in the process as much as possible to alleviate stress or uncertainty, help them cultivate self-confidence, and give them a sense of control.
Present Bias
Individuals tend to choose immediate rewards over longer-term gains, which often leads to reduced effort, procrastination, and subpar learning outcomes. To overcome this type of bias, do your best to elucidate the clear benefits and real-life value derived from learning. Another way to go about it would be to provide immediate feedback. While not always considered a reward in itself, instant feedback illustrates to learners that their progress has been noted and their efforts aren’t going unrecognized. It’s also a great way to tide them over between milestones, which will bring much better rewards upon completion.
Confirmation Bias
We unknowingly tend to favor information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs and often disregard contradictory evidence. This hinders critical thinking, leads to skewed interpretations or misconceptions, and even reinforces harmful stereotypes, in some severe cases. So, Instructional Designers should provide balanced information, illustrating diverse perspectives of each topic and encouraging reflective practices that promote critical thought and challenge assumptions and predispositions. Here, it’s also important to use varied instructional strategies to make sure that you address all learners’ needs and provide everyone with the opportunity to explore and evaluate information on their own. Finally, remember that no one is immune to confirmation bias, so try to recognize your own assumptions and do your best to minimize their influence on your work.
Conclusion
An Instructional Designer’s job is hard enough as it is. Should we make it more complicated by scouring for insights in other disciplines? Well, it seems to be worth it. By incorporating behavioral economics insights into our Instructional Design practices, we become better equipped to detect where learners can fall short before even launching our course. If we’re aware of how learners potentially behave within a learning environment, we can establish measures to ensure their eventual success. It doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
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