How To Motivate Online Students to Study

January 7, 2025 byChristopher E. Nelson

6 min to read

A father is helping his two sons with school work

Losing motivation from time to time can happen to any student, whether they’re attending classes virtually or not. As a Learning Coach, you may feel at a loss for how to get your child motivated to do schoolwork again. You may try looking for words to inspire them or ways to get them to feel excited about learning. The good news is, you’re not alone.

Many experienced Connections Academy® Learning Coaches have developed their own strategies for how to motivate students when it comes to virtual learning and have shared their insight into how you can combat your student’s academic challenges, wavering self-discipline, or low enthusiasm.

How to Find Motivation to Study

The first step in thinking about how we can motivate students to study more is to meet them where they’re at. Identifying your child’s challenges whether they be academic, social, or just not feeling engaged with their assignments is a good place to start; then you can work on different approaches like the ones below to help make learning more interesting for your student.

1. Use games to make virtual learning fun.

Infusing school with gamification can make learning or studying more exciting for students.

“Each day I post a ‘brain teaser’ question on the board that covers anything we’re studying. My son can guess the answer even before he starts to work on it. It really draws him into the classroom and motivates him to get started on the school day,” one Learning Coach says. 

You can use games make learning a concept or skill more engaging or use similar brain teaser questions as reviews before a quiz, to introduce new concepts, or to see what your student already knows and understands while keeping them interested and motivated to learn. 

2. Track daily progress with visual representations.

Introducing a visual cue can help virtual students develop self-motivation to learn because it sets clear expectations for what they have to get done and helps them see the impact of their work as they go through their day.

One Learning Coach, for example, uses jars of marbles as her daily motivation system. Each student has their own jar filled with as many marbles as they have lessons scheduled that day. As a student finishes a lesson, they take a marble from the jar and put it in the “completed” jar. 

Bullet journaling can be another way to keep track of daily tasks in a way that allows your student to be creative and organize themselves in a way that works with the way they think. Coloring in progress bars or checking off tasks are ways to have visual results of all they’ve accomplished during the day.

3. Connect learning to physical activities.

Kinesthetic learning or learning that’s connected to a physical activity or tactile experience, might help your student because it changes the way their brain engages with the information and can improve their comprehension of the material.

“My son was having a hard time learning spelling words in our classroom,” one Learning Coach shares “He just wasn’t getting it. One evening he picked up the jump rope we use for PE, asked me a spelling word, and jumped as he spelled it out. So now his favorite way to learn spelling words is to go outside and jump rope. I sit in a chair with a stack of spelling cards and call them out to him. He spells out each word by jumping and saying each letter of the word.” 

An alternative to jumping rope could be to use a ball. Your child might enjoy bouncing the ball along with spelling out each letter of their words. If you have two or more children who are close enough in age, they can pass the ball back and forth as each says the next letter in the word. Listening for the other to add their letter can help lreinforce their memory and learning. 

4. Teach through volunteering.

Inspire students to learn and make a difference at the same time by volunteering in the community. By getting your child involved in a cause they feel passionate about, you may find that they are more motivated to not only show up for a cause, but gain practical life skills, a sense of community, or valuable insight from it.

“Our children volunteer twice a week at a local veterinary clinic. (It’s) an experience they truly enjoy,” one Learning Coach says. 

In addition to the benefits volunteering provides to the student and the community, it can also: 

Teach social skills

Develop the student’s maturity

Provide work experience

Help build their sense of purpose and confidence

5. Recognize a job well done.

People of all ages respond well when their efforts are celebrated. Validating responsible behaviors such as prioritizing homework over playing a video game or choosing to ask for help with a difficult subject can go a long way to help students feel motivated with their schoolwork and connect their hard work with positive outcomes.

Displaying your child’s work, whether it’s art, neat handwriting, or a good grade on a difficult test can do wonders for providing positive support and reinforcement and keep students motivated to keep succeeding.

6. Make learning goal-oriented.

People are often more motivated when there is a particular goal or outcome attached to their efforts. Work with your student to identify goals they want to set for themselves in terms of their education, growth, confidence, and happiness. Creating a vision board or goal ladder with rewards for reaching milestones along the way are great ways to blend goal setting with creativity.

If you post their goals in their learning area, your student can check their goals off as they accomplish them, giving your child a continuous sense of achievement. Once they hit a certain milestone, reward them for their effort and persistence. This can be something as simple as their favorite treat, a special family activity, a toy or game they’ve been asking about, or a movie night where they get to pick what you watch.

Keep Students Motivated to Learn with Online School

If your student is struggling to stay motivated and focused in school, the flexibility of online school might be the right fit. Reach out to an enrollment specialist and download our free eGuide to learn more about online learning options near you.