Affective Networks

The Affective Networks relate to engagement, motivation, and persistence. Learners have different interests, backgrounds, experiences, and personalities. What's engaging to one person may be boring or even overwhelming to others. 

Designing learning experiences so that they attend to our learners' Affective Networks allows them to use their background knowledge and experiences to make emotional connections to new concepts. 

By designing with the Affectives Networks in mind, we help our learners answer these questions. 

• Why should I care about this?
• Why should I learn it?
• Why is this important to me?

Affective Networks: Potential Barriers

Many factors may prevent learners from becoming and staying engaged in learning.

Examples:

• Learners don't understand the purpose of the lesson. 
• The assignment is too easy or too difficult.
• The assignment has no value in the learner's life. 
• Learners may lack executive functions or coping strategies. 
• Learners may think the content is boring or irrelevant. 
• Learners may be embarrassed to ask questions. 
• Learners may have insufficient background knowledge. 

Consider your learning environment, could any of these barriers be impacting your learners' motivation, engagement or persistence? As you watch the Affective Networks video (5:22), keep your Action Plan Peer Review Assignment in mind. What UDL strategies might you use to address your learners' Affective Networks to increase their motivation, engagement and persistence?

Transcript: Affective Networks Download Transcript: Affective Networks

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