The Relationships Among The Quality Of The Printed Materials,Students’ Motivation, And Students’ Achievement At The In Service Training Program Equivalent To Diploma II In Bandung Regional Center, Universitas Terbuka (The Indonesian Open Learning University)

Self-instructional materials which are interesting, meaningful, and appropriately challenging can enhance students’ motivation and achievement (Keller, 1987b). When students are interested in learning materials, feel confident, see some relevance between the learning materials and their needs,and receive some satisfaction from learning materials, they will become motivated. Regardless of the levels of intellectual and other academic ability,students who are motivated will learn more effectively than students who are not motivated. Accordingly, motivated students will learn more than students who are not motivated. This study was conducted to measure the quality of the Universitas Terbuka’s printed materials in terms of enhancing students’ motivation for learning. This study also investigated the relationships among the quality of the printed materials, students’ motivation, and students’ achievement. Four tutorial groups (136 students) in the inserviceTraining Program for Elementary School Teachers at Universitas Terbuka were assigned by cluster sampling to participate in the present study. Students were asked to evaluate a module of the Educational Psychology (Psikologi Pendidikan) course that they had already studied. The instrument employed was a questionnaire modified from the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (INMS) developed by Keller (1990). Data of students’ motivation were obtained through administration of a questionnaire modified from the motivation section of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), developed by a team of researchers from the National Center for Research to Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning (NCRIPTAL) and the School of Education at the University of Michigan (Pintrich et al., 1993). A formative test was developed by the researcher and administered to students to assess the students’ achievement. A combination of descriptive and correlational methods was employed. Data on the quality of the printed materials, students’ motivation and students’ achievement were interpreted by using descriptive statistics. The findings showed that the quality of the module of the Educational Psychology course was categorized as high, students’ achievement in the formative test was poor, and, interestingly, students’ motivation for studying the module was high. The Pearson Product-Moment Correlations both for the quality of the printed materials and students’ motivation and for the quality of the printed materials and students’ achievement were significant and positive. However, the correlation between students’ motivation and students’ achievement was significantly negative. Although standard multiple linear regression showed that the four motivational characteristics of a module of the Educational Psychology course could not serve as predictors for students’ achievement in the formative test, the confidence characteristic of the module of the Educational Psychology course made the largest contribution to students’ motivation for studying the module. The results of the present study imply that the ARCS (Attention,Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) model can be used as a framework for designing and revising a self instruction module and for planning, and carrying out tutorials which can enhance students’ motivation and students’achievement. The findings of this study also pose interesting questions which demand further study