Designing to Motivate Interaction between Peers in Learning Contexts

The increase of children’s interest in social media has helped facilitate

interaction between peers. This interaction plays a vital role in children’s

educational development. However, as children grow older, their motivation

to interact –particularly to seek and provide academic support– declines. This

thesis reports on the mixed methods research conducted to provide UK Key

Stage 3 pupils with a motivating peer support system. The design of this

system is informed by research on children’s motivation. Specifically, this

work draws on the Self Determination Theory (SDT); a recent theory of

motivation that takes into consideration an individual’s relatedness to a

community. This social inclination of SDT makes it an appropriate

underpinning for the development of a peer support system.

This thesis examines the design of AnswerPro, a help-seeking system

designed under a user-centred approach. The motivational constructs of

autonomy, competence and relatedness were translated into system interface

features. An iterative design process resulted in a web-based tool that enables

direct asking and answering of questions between users. The evaluation of this

design was conducted in two stages. Firstly, a field study found that users’

interactions on the system were influenced by their measured motivation. In

particular, users who were initially less motivated to seek and provide help

interacted more on the system compared to their motivated peers. Secondly,

two controlled studies found that AnswerPro increased pupils’ motivation to

seek peer support. Those studies also revealed the complex nature of

relatedness and identity in help-seeking systems.

This research contributes to the HCI field the identification, interpretation and

evaluation of three motivational constructs in the design of a system.

Furthermore, this work contributes a peer support system that motivates pupils

to seek support from each other. Also, a deeper understanding of relatedness

and its interpretation into identity is formed. This understanding resulted in the

identification of 4 distinct identity modes for help-seeking systems under

which users’ behaviours and motivation differ.

Balsam Abdulaziz AlSugair