THE SIX RELEVANCE STRATEGIES influence how the learning task is portrayed to the learner, rather than impacting directly on the content itself. John Keller describes the relevance strategies with the following terms:

1. Experience
2. Present Worth
3. Future Usefulness
4. Needs Matching
5. Modeling
6. Choice
   

The first strategy to assist in relevance suggests that instruction should tell learners how the new learning will use their existing skills. Students will have an opportunity to use prior knowledge in order to comprehend the new skill(s).

As opposed to stressing its value in the future, the second relevance strategy suggests that instruction clearly state the current value of instruction.

The third relevance strategy suggests explicitly tying instructional goals to the learner's future activities and having learners participate in activities in which they relate the instruction to their own future goals.

Example: In hopes of obtaining useful study skills for college, students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses in high school study longer and work harder.

The fourth relevance strategy is called needs matching.Needs matching may be accomplished by capitalizing on the dynamics of achievement and risk taking, power, and affiliation.

The fifth relevance strategy is modeling. Some activities that use this strategy include use of alumni as guest speakers, and allowing students who finish self-paced work first to serve as tutors. In both cases, the learner models their instructors' beliefs or techniques.

The sixth strategy that enhances relevance is choice. Choice may be implemented by allowing learners to use different methods to pursue their work or allowing learners a choice in how they organize it.

All the above strategies represent various ways to help learners see why what they are learning should be important to them. Futhermore, these strategies work to produce motivational effects of howsomething is taught, as opposed to producing effects of whatis taught.

• Keller's ARCS Model - Attention

• Keller's ARCS Model - Confidence

• Instructional Design, Smith, P.L., & Ragan, T.J. (1993)

Rudy Robles
Educational Technology Graduate Student
Fall of 1998