MOTIVATING ADULT LEARNERS USING BLENDED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION

ABSTRACTThe process of teaching and learning is one of the most common issues discusses by educators and students regardless of in primary, secondary or even in tertiary level of education. It is important for the educators to ensure that learners especially those in tertiary education are motivated in learning thus promoting life -long learning. In line with the MyBrain15's programme launched by the Government of Malaysia which targeted 60,000 PhD holders among Malaysian by the year 2023, it is important to ensure that the learners are motivated to learn. Therefore, ARCS Model of Motivational Design need to be implemented in the curriculum in order to motivate the students as well as promoting autonomy in learning. The integration of technology in curriculum will a lso helps to provide a new dimension of learning experience for both the educators and learners. This paper proposes the integration of blended learning and ARCS model to be implemented in higher education institution to improve the quality of teaching and learning process. The focus of this paper is on knowing the adult learners, understanding the implementation of ARCS motivational model in teaching and learning process, understanding the precise definition of blended learning, the approaches in the imple mentation, the advantages and disadvantages of blended learning and finally the implication in the teaching and learning experience.Keywords: Motivation, Adult Learners, ARCS Model of Motivational Design, Blended Learning, Improving teaching and learning.INTRODUCTION:Teaching and learning process supposes to offer both educators and learners with beneficial knowledge, enlightening experience and interactive interaction in classroom. According to Parkay, Anctil and Hass (2009), curriculum leaders must understand that appropriate instructional methods as well as meaningful curriculum are the important elements in order to establish an effective learning environment. It shows that, after the educator developed the curriculum, the educator must also consider on the instructional activities that cater to the needs of the learners. However, developing appropriate learning activity is not an easy task. As mentioned by Parkay, Anctil and Hass (2009), developing appropriate learning activities require the educator to be thoughtful, have insight into learners' motivation as well as having good judgment.Teaching in tertiary level of education is definitely not the same as teaching in primary and secondary levels. In order to ensure that the teaching and learning process can achieve the objectives of the curriculum, educators need to aware of the capability and needs of the learners in terms of cognitive, affective and psychological aspects. As mentioned by Knowles, adults learned differently from children because an adult has arrived at a self-concept of being responsible for one's own life and being self - directed (cited in Smith, 2002). According to Jonassen (1999), learning process must be authentic; personally relevant, challenging and interesting to learners as well as provides a physical simulation of the real-world task environment. When all these aspects being considered, the learners will be motivated to learn. Motivation is the most important aspect that the educator needs to look into in order to gain effective teaching and learning process.By having great amount of motivation in learning, the learners are able to pursue their education to the highest level as well as moving towards life-long learning. According to Asil, Norlia and Jamil (2011), life-long learning is a continuous process to improve one's knowledge, skills and competence based on the learning objectives of the subject matter. They also stated that the government is the main agent for promoting lifelong learning at the tertiary level. In Malaysia, our government had launched the MyBrain15 programme, which portrays on the government's effort to encourage Malaysians to continue their studies up to postgraduate level. …