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This study addresses student attitudes about open badges (after having been required to earn badges as part of their course work or having earned them through the library) and their desire to earn additional optional badges offered across campus. Research has presented conflicting evidence about the potential effect of open badges on student motivation, usually studying students who have had no previous experience with open badges. However, research has also found that open badges are still largely new and unknown for many people, which may affect initial motivation to earn badges. For this reason, our study considered the potential impact that prior exposure to and earning of open badges could have on students' attitudes toward open badges. Our findings are that student motivation to earn additional badges is increased after prior exposure depending on the badge design, badge implementation, and student understanding of how open badges function. We found that students who earned badges through the library software training program had the highest motivation, followed by Ed Tech class students.

Privately owned lands provide a number of benefits to humans, including food, clean air and water, and building materials. Private lands are also home to a host of wildlife species and the habitats that they rely upon for survival. As such, balancing human and ecological needs on private lands is of critical importance. Stewardship is a term popularly used to refer to this balanced approach of managing land for a host of benefits. When landowners lack the interest, ability, or willingness to incorporate stewardship into their management strategies, incentives are often provided to spur greater conservation outcomes. This two-part case study is focused on private land stewardship. Using qualitative data analysis, I first examined the behaviors that a sample of production-oriented ranchers defined as stewardship. I then explored the environmental values underlying their behaviors. Utilitarian values dominated the four broad themes that emerged from respondents' operationalization of stewardship, including: maintaining economically productive rangelands, protecting water resources, maintaining an aesthetically pleasing property, and providing for wildlife. Next, I sought to better understand the impact of incentives on durable conservation behaviors. As incentives can reduce intrinsic motivation, I used Self-Determination Theory as a framework for surveying participants in an existing conservation incentive program. The results suggest that landowners maintained their willingness to continue protecting a threatened bird species following the removal of an incentive. Each paper concludes with an analysis of findings within the context of the empirical literature, and present potential practical implications for future conservation efforts. / Master of Science

Lärande och motivation är nära sammankopplade, en motiverad elev tar till sig materialet bättre. Detta är ett område som utforskats under lång tid, men verktygen som tillämpas för att främja lärande har utvecklats och därmed finns nya motivationsfrämjande faktorer som kan utforskas. Idag finns det även digitala läroverktyg. Samspelet mellan teknologi, lärande och motivation är ett intressant och växande forskningsområde. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan upplevelse av gamification (eller tv-spels element som tillämpas inom en annan kontext än ren underhållning) i ett digitalt läroverktyg och användarnas motivation till språklärande. Följande forskningsfrågor har ställts: Finns det gruppskillnader i fråga om motivation mellan personer som är enspråkiga respektive flerspråkiga? Finns det gruppskillnader gällande motivation och åldersgrupper? Finns det ett samband mellan hur högt aktiviteten värderas och motivation kopplad till spelfunktioner? Motiveras personer som drivs av inre motivation av spelfunktioner? Hur beskriver deltagarna sina erfarenheter av gamification kopplat till motivation? Datainsamlingen genomfördes genom en enkät med kvantitativa samt kompletterande kvalitativa frågor. Urvalet bestod av 35 deltagare i åldern 15-42 år, varav 31,4% identifierade sig som män, 62,9% som kvinnor och 5,7% som annan. Dataanalysen skedde i SPSS och visade på en signifikant korrelation mellan aktivitetsvärdering och gamification samt gruppskillnad kopplad till flerspråkighet där gruppen för flerspråkiga uppvisade högre yttre motivation. Inga signifikanta gruppskillnader kopplat till ålder kunde identifieras. Deltagarna var generellt positivt inställda till gamification, men upplevde att liv-systemet motverkade lärandet eftersom användaren förlorar ”liv” när misstag begås och när liven tagit slut stoppas från att fortsätta genomföra lektioner under en viss tid. / Learning and motivation are closely linked; a motivated student will have an easier time learning the material. This is an area that has been researched for a long time, however the tools used to promote learning have evolved and therefore there are new motivational factors that can be explored. Today, digital learning platforms are also being used. The interaction between technology, learning and motivation is an interesting and growing research area. The aim of this study was to examine if there is a relationship between how gamification (or video game elements applied in other contexts than entertainment) is experienced in a digital learning tool and the users’ motivation to learn languages. The following research questions were asked: Are there any group differences in terms of motivation based on multilingualism? Are there any group differences in motivation based on age groups? Is there a correlation between how highly the activity is valued and motivation derived from gamification? Are intrinsically motivated people driven by gamification? How do the participants describe their experiences with gamification in terms of motivation? Data collection was performed through a quantitative survey with some qualitative questions as well. The participant group consisted of 35 participants aged 15-42 years. Of these 31.4% identified themselves as men, 62.9% as women and 5.7% as other. Data analysis was performed in SPSS and showed a significant correlation between activity-value and gamification, as well as a significant group difference based on multilingualism, where multilingual individuals scored higher on extrinsic motivation. No significant differences at group level could be identified based on age. The participants were generally positive towards gamification, but expressed that the life system disrupted their learning, since the users lose lives when they make mistakes, when they run out of lives they are prevented from continuing for a certain time, disrupting learning.

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Problem: Hög produktivitet är ett måste för dagens organisationer i strävan mot ökad konkurrenskraft. Samtidigt visar motivationsforskningen att individer som upplever inre motivation är mer produktiva. Ett arbetssystem som gör anspråk på både ökad effektivitet och en motiverad arbetskraft är lean. En industri där lean fått fäste är lagerverksamheter med ständigt höga krav på ökad produktivitet och optimerade varuflöden. Forskningen kring lean och dess påverkan på medarbetare är dock motstridig. Detta beror på att lean inte är en enhetligt definierbar arbetsmetod då konceptet innefattar allt som handlar om att eliminera slöseri. På grund av detta saknar forskningen en samsyn gällande effekterna av lean på medarbetarna. Motivation i kombination med lean är även ett relativt nytt forskningsområde. Framförallt finns det få empiriska studier gällande medarbetares upplevelser av inre motivation i en lean-baserad lagerverksamhet. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap och förståelse om medarbetare på plocklagret i en lean-baserad lagerverksamhet upplever inre motivation. Vidare ämnar studien att kartlägga hur den studerade lagerverksamheten arbetar med lean för att belysa vilken påverkan lean har på den inre motivationen. Metod: Studien utgick från ett tolkande samhällsvetenskapligt perspektiv med en kvalitativ ansats. För att erhålla kunskap och förståelse gällande ett specifikt fall användes fallstudie som forskningsdesign med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Forskningsansatsen var av ett iterativt slag där studien pendlade mellan teori och empiri fram till slutgiltigt resultat. Vidare användes en tematisk analys för bearbetning av data.   Slutsats: I studien framgick det att fallföretaget arbetar med lean utefter den teoretiska framställningen av konceptet. Resultatet visade att medarbetarna upplever meningsfullhet i arbetet men att arbetet upplevdes innebära en låg grad autonomi och feedback. Studien visade därför en tvetydig bild av medarbetarna upplevda inre motivation. Studien kunde fastslå att lean har både en positiv och negativ påverkan på medarbetarnas inre motivation. De positiva effekterna som kunde skönjas var en högre grad av delaktighet och autonomi, bättre sociala relationer, ökad självkänsla och ökad kompetens. De negativa effekterna som kunde urskiljas var högre stress i form av prestationskrav och ökad arbetsintensitet. Studien kunde därmed visa att lean hade en överhängande positiv påverkan på medarbetarnas inre motivation. / Problem: High productivity is crucial for today's organizations in the pursuit of increased competitiveness. At the same time, research on motivation shows that individuals who experience intrinsic motivation are more productive. A work system that claims to increase efficiency and lead to a motivated workforce is lean. An industry where lean has taken hold is warehousing which faces constant demands for increased productivity and optimized production flows. Research on lean and its impact on employees, however, is contradictory. This is because lean is not a unitary concept but one that includes all aspects related to eliminating waste. Because of this, research seems to lack consensus on the effects of lean on employees. Motivation in combination with lean is also a relatively new area of research. Above all, there are few empirical studies on employees' perception of intrinsic motivation in lean based warehouse operations. Purpose:The purpose of the study is to provide knowledge and understanding if warehouse stock pickers in a lean-based warehouse operation experience intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, the study aims to identify how the studied warehouse operation are working with lean to highlight the impact of lean on intrinsic motivation. Method: The study is based on an interpretive social science perspective with a qualitative approach. To obtain knowledge and understanding regarding a specific case, we applied a case study research design using semi-structured interviews. The research approach is iterative where the study has fluctuated between theory and empirics until the final results. Furthermore, a thematic analysis was used for data processing Conclusion: The study revealed that the case company is working with lean according to the theoretical description of the concept. The results showed that employees feel meaningfulness in their work but that the work was perceived to contain a low degree of autonomy and feedback. The study therefore showed an ambiguous picture of the employees perceived intrinsic motivation. We could conclude that lean has both positive and negative effects on employees' intrinsic motivation. The positive effects consisted of a greater degree of participation and autonomy, improved social relationships, self-esteem and skills. The negative effects that could be identified was higher stress due to performance requirements and increased work intensity. We could thus conclude that lean had an immediate positive impact on employees' intrinsic motivation.

Introduction: In order to maintain strong relationships with customers, a lot of firms have invested in improving quality; this has led to an increase of quality programs. One of the most prominent quality standards is the ISO 9000 series, however prior research has different views whether or not the standards are beneficial. Two of the areas where disagreement exists regarding ISO 9000, are its effect on customer satisfaction and furthermore how the different motives behind the implementation can affect the outcome of ISO 9000. Hence this paper aimed to seek an explanation between these two matters and fill the research gap, where it was conducted on companies deployed in Sweden. Purpose: The purpose with this research is to explain how the different motives behind the implementation of ISO 9000 effect customer satisfaction. Methodology: A quantitative study was performed, with a cross-sectional research approach, where a questionnaire was used to collect the data. This resulted in 102 answers, where the questionnaire was sent out by e-mail to one representative for each firm. Conclusion: The study concluded that it was no difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to implement ISO 9000 and its effect on perceived quality, perceived value and customer expectations. It was also discovered that those who had the ISO 9000 series performed well with regards to their customer satisfaction

The purpose of this research project was to give a better understanding of the relationship between sustainable development and employee motivation. More specifically, this study focused on the influence of sustainable development over intrinsic and extrinsic employee motivation, and aimed to identify and explain the different motivators at stake in this connection.   We decided to select sustainable development and motivation as our two main theories, and we carefully developed them in our theoretical framework. Beside that, we chose to follow an interpretivist paradigm and to conduct qualitative interviews with employees.   For this research project, we contacted Brocard, a French wine producer seriously involved in sustainable development for almost 20 years. After having designed an interview guide thanks to our theoretical framework and our own knowledge, we carried out six semi-structured interviews via Skype with the company and collected almost three hours of data.   After the retranscription and the translation of these interviews, we presented the empirical results and analyzed the data by following a thematic analysis. We managed to group a great number of concepts under three themes (satisfaction, working environment, and performance) and discussed them. The results showed several motivators at stake when employees were confronted to sustainable development, either intrinsic and extrinsic.   Several limitations can be underlined in our research project, as the difference of language between the respondents and the final writing thesis, which probably caused the loss of some information, or the fact that this study is partly limited to France, due to the company we contacted. To go beyond those results, we suggested to develop the same type of study in other countries or other areas of the world, and then compare the results.

Students´ achievements in scientific subjects, such as biology, have stringently declined during the past decade. In order to disrupt these declining results in scientific subjects it´s important to identify factors leading to decreased academic achievements within the scientific subjects. This study aims to investigate the association between students´ achievements in biology and self-efficacy beliefs, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation among 120 Swedish students with an age between thirteen and fifteen years s. A self-efficacy sub-scale of the “Motivational for Learning Questionnaire” (MSLQ) was used to evaluate students´ self-efficacy beliefs and an “Academic Motivation Scale for Learning Biology” (AMSLB) was used to determine students´ motivation to learn biology. The results showed a significant positive correlation between students´ biology achievement and self-efficacy beliefs, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Further, a significant negative correlation was found between students´ biology achievement and amotivation. These findings indicates that both self-efficacy beliefs, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation could be important underlying factors that positively impact students´ achievements in biology.

The study examined the effects of positive verbal reinforcement on intrinsic motivation by determining differential effects over four multidimensions of Ryan's Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI). Subjects (N=60) were 30 male and 30 female college students. The subjects were blocked by gender and randomly assigned to a positive verbal reinforcement group or a control group. The subjects received 10 trials on the stabilometer. The results of the study indicated that there were significant group differences for composite intrinsic motivation and for perceived competence; however, there were no significant gender differences found. Furthermore, no group differences were reported for the underlying factors of interest/enjoyment, effort, or pressure/tension.