Combat Tanking in Education: The TANC Model for Playful Distance Learning in Social Virtual Reality

Background

Motivation is one of the most important affective aspects of learning because it influences the cognitive processes of learning (Schiefele, 1991). Motivational factors include goal orientation, interest, and self-efficacy beliefs (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002). Education practitioners do not always know or are able to motivate and engage learners (Mimirinis & Bhattacharya, 2007). One potential answer to tackle this deficiency is the purposeful enhancement of learners’ motivation in the direction of cultivating a learning atmosphere conducive to intrinsic motivation. The self-determination theory (SDT) is a theoretical framework that looks at motivation from a psychological point of view to determine what motivates learners, how and why (Ryan & Deci, 2000). SDT postulates that intrinsically motivating actions can be enacted in learning environments that exhibit choices, direct feedback, optimal challenges, mastery of meaningful tasks, self-directed interaction, and social connectedness (Mystakidis & Herodotou, 2016; Ryan & Deci, 2008). These elements can be coded into the competency, autonomy, and relatedness virtuous triad. Ryan and Deci (2000) define intrinsic motivation as “the inherent novelty to seek out challenges, to extend or exercise one’s capacities, to explore, and to learn”. Intrinsic motivation is associated with in-depth learning, high performance, and learning resilience (Mystakidis, Berki, & Valtanen, 2019; Zainuddin, 2018). When people like and enjoy online learning experiences that are meaningful to them, they tend to engage, take initiatives, act, set, and achieve personal goals.