By Leilani Mascio 

Student exhaustion and mental health create a perfect storm, eroding a key ingredient for success: motivation. In our deep dive into student challenges, we examine why 71% of our students report in the 2025 Student Satisfaction Survey struggling to complete schoolwork. Their comments reveal this isn’t about laziness: it’s about systems, relevance, and energy. We share their voices and evidence-based strategies to help rebuild student engagement. 

Unpacking the Student Motivation Gap 

In this deep dive into the top five student challenges, we turn to a symptom of a strained system: the motivation to complete schoolwork. With an average of 71% of students reporting this challenge across the 2024-2025 academic year (73% in Fall 2024, 69% in Spring 2025), it’s clear that a pervasive motivation gap exists. 

This challenge cannot be siloed. It sits at the intersection of the issues we’ve already explored. The exhaustion from relentless schedules (77% of students) depletes the energy needed to begin tasks. The weight of mental health challenges (72.5% of students) can paralyze initiative. And the constant pressure of financial hardship (an upcoming blog post) can make academic work feel distant and abstract compared to immediate survival needs. Motivation is not a simple character trait; it’s a finite resource heavily dependent on an ecosystem of student well-being.  

What Does the Research Say About Motivation? 

Educational psychology distinguishes between two primary types of motivation, both threatened by the challenges students name: 

• Intrinsic Motivation: The drive to do something because it is inherently interesting, enjoyable, or aligned with personal values. This is the gold standard for deep, lasting engagement. 
• Extrinsic Motivation: The drive to do something to earn a reward or avoid a punishment (e.g., grades, points, deadlines). 

The research consensus, articulated by theorists like Edward Deci and Richard Ryan in their self-determination theory, is that intrinsic motivation is sustained by three core psychological needs: Autonomy (a sense of choice and control), Competence (feeling capable and effective), and Relatedness (feeling connected to others). When these needs are thwarted by overwhelming workloads, irrelevant tasks, or impersonal learning environments, intrinsic motivation plummets. Students are left relying on fragile, stress-inducing extrinsic motivators. 

What Do Learners Say About Their Motivation? 

The numbers frame the issue, but student voices reveal its texture. When asked to describe their challenge with motivation, their comments pointedly describe scenarios where the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are systematically undermined. Their words cluster around three clear themes. 

Theme 1: The Why Matters: Relevance vs. Busywork 

Students are demotivated when they cannot see the purpose, relevance, or application of an assignment to their lives, majors, or future careers. Work perceived as busywork is a major motivation killer. 

• “Some of the schoolwork is literally just busywork and serves no purpose.” 
• “I’d prefer it if I could spend more of my time and energy genuinely learning from my classwork instead of trying to earn points.” 

Theme 2: Overwhelm and the Cycle of Procrastination 

Motivation is the first casualty of exhaustion and anxiety. When workload feels insurmountable, or starting a complex task feels paralyzing, students describe a debilitating cycle of procrastination and shutdown. 

• “I get in really bad, tired moods where I feel stuck and unable to move or do anything productive… and it makes me even more depressed.” 
• “I will simply write the most honest response… simple burnout from the amount of homework.” 

Theme 3: Structural Disincentives: Feedback, Flexibility, and Faculty Engagement 

Motivation is eroded by course structures that make students feel anonymous, unsupported, or set up to fail. A lack of timely feedback, rigid policies, and disengaged instruction signal to students that their effort and growth don’t matter. 

• “When the professors make you feel belittled for asking questions, it’s hard to know what to ask.” 
• “It is difficult to feel motivated to complete coursework when assignments aren’t graded in a timely manner.” 

How We Can Help: Building Courses That Motivate 

Instructors cannot manufacture student motivation, but we can design learning environments that cultivate it by supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Here are research-aligned, tangible strategies. 

1. Connect the Dots: Make Relevance Explicit (Theme 1) 

Actions:  

• List and map learning objectives to corresponding assessments. You don’t need to start from scratch: download a Canvas template that organizes Canvas modules by objectives. Or begin each module or major assignment with a “Why This Matters” statement. 
• Scaffold and explicitly link the skills or knowledge to real-world applications, future courses, or professional tasks.  
• Offer choice in topics, formats, or application cases where possible.  

Rationale & Research: This directly builds intrinsic motivation by satisfying the need for autonomy (choice) and connecting to personal goals. Research shows that utility-value interventions (helping students see the usefulness of a task) significantly increase interest and effort (Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009).  

2. “Chunk” Tasks and Scaffold Success (Theme 2)  

Action: Break large, daunting projects into smaller, sequenced “chunks” with separate, low-stakes deadlines. Provide clear rubrics, templates, or annotated examples of successful work.  

Rationale & Research: This combats overwhelm and builds competence. Scaffolding complex tasks reduces cognitive load and anxiety, making the starting point clear. Each small completion provides a “win,” releasing dopamine and building momentum, a concept supported by behavioral science. 

3. Engineer “Quick Wins” and Foster Growth Mindsets (Themes 2 & 3) 

Action: Design early, low-stakes assessments where most students can succeed with reasonable effort. Use feedback that focuses on effort, strategy, and improvement (“Your thesis is getting sharper with each revision”) rather than solely on fixed ability. 

Rationale & Research: Early success experiences build self-efficacy (competence). Feedback aligned with Carol Dweck’s growth mindset theory motivates students by framing challenges as opportunities to learn, not as threats to their grades or intelligence. 

4. Provide Predictable Feedback and Human Presence (Theme 3) 

Action: Set and keep a predictable schedule for returning graded work (e.g., within one week). In online courses, post weekly video or audio announcements. In all courses, be present in discussions and responsive to emails in a predictable timeframe. 

Rationale & Research: Timely feedback is essential for learning and demonstrates that student work is valued, fostering relatedness and competence. Instructor social presence (the degree to which an instructor is perceived as a “real person”) is one of the strongest predictors of student motivation and satisfaction in online environments (Garrison et al., 2000). 

Final Thoughts 

The student motivation gap is not a referendum on their character; it is often a feedback loop on their environment. When we, as instructors, intentionally design for relevance, manage cognitive load, and provide supportive feedback, we do more than improve assignment completion rates. We help rebuild the autonomy, competence, and relatedness that fuel the intrinsic drive to learn—a drive that is essential not just for passing our class but for lifelong engagement in their fields.