How to Get People to Actually Do...

I've tried to get people to participate in discussion boards and other social technologies. Very few do and it is difficulty to know exactly why.

Creating Passionate Users' 'Getting someone to decide' postgives some research that highlights the problem. People learned intellectually (some by video, some by a printout) of the consequences of not getting a tetnus injection but only 3% of those in the survey did something about it (whichever way they were taught). Then those being studied were given information to take away on a piece of paper, asked to decide if they would go to the clinic or not, and 28% did something about it.

So in conclusion how does this affect my teaching? Some learning theories see learning not just as taking in and constructing knowledge, but as changing your actions and motivations. We can help change actions by giving people the exact instructions they need to do something, and asking them to make a decision to do something and not change their minds.

Finally they give us the reference for the research:

Leventhal, H.R., Singer, P., and Jones, S. (1965)
Effects of fear and specificity of recommendation upon attitudes and behaviour.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2, pp 20-29.