20 Motivational Activities for College Students

Today’s college students are tomorrow’s citizens who build up the next society.

Motivating them to work hard and perform well in academics as well as helping them to see the life from the right perspective is important.

It is the role of the college authorities to help them see their academic path clearly and enable them to set early goals and excel well.

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Those who are intrinsically motivated need little push as they are curious from within or challenge themselves and get fascinated to master a subject or achieve their goals.

However, a majority of them are extrinsically motivated and they need a constant push from outside may be in the form of a mentor to guide them in the right direction.

Here let us have a look at some of the motivational activities for college students that might help them to a great extent to grow successfully in life.

1. Open-Ended Questions

This is one of the most effective options to help students to come up with creative solutions.

Giving open-ended questions enable students to think out of the box and make an attempt to test and challenge their creative thinking.

In addition to academic brilliance, a polished creative thinking capability can help them to grow up as more creative persons.

2. Give Responsible Tasks

It is important to treat them as grown-up individuals. The primary step is to give them some responsible tasks.

This helps them to develop a sense of responsibility and they will get a feeling that they are important too.

They feel motivated to take up important roles in life.

3. Work in Groups

In addition to growing up as an individual, it is equally important to be a team player.

Working in groups helps them to understand people around them and reach a solution as a team.

It provides a platform to express their own views while giving equal importance to others’ views also.

4. Positive Competition

Involving them in friendly competitions in college is another way to motivate them.

Being part of healthy competitions helps to improve their positivity and they learn to appreciate and accept the success of others too.

This friendly approach also enhances their spirit of winning in life while respecting the opponents and considering their feelings.

5. Evaluation Programs

 Along with proper teaching techniques and training, it is important to set up regular evaluation programs.

Assess them on how far they have understood the syllabus. Accordingly, the faculty can change their strategies and make them more effective.

At the same time, students can use this as a self-assessment to learn where they actually stand and do more hard work to perform better.

6. Switch Roles

This is one work at all levels.

Taking the role of a teacher helps college students to know the pain and dedication needed to carry out the job.

Even after they get back to the role of a student, the motivation they gained during the activity helps them to study with more responsibility.

7. Motivational Quotes

Give students the job of collecting motivational quotes and making posters with it.

Pasting such inspirational quotes in the classrooms or information boards outside the classrooms can help students find motivation on the go.

Let every student get a chance to change the quotes with their favorite ones every week.

8. Field Trips

Plan for some interesting field trips every semester.

It would be good to give them some goals to achieve at the end of each trip depending on the chosen field, making the trip more interesting.

If it is assessed as a healthy competition, then they would come up with brilliant ideas to reach their goals on time.

9. Set Semester Goals

Setting realistic goals is important and achieving small attainable goals gives them a pleasure and inspiration to try harder every time.

For college students, setting semester goals can be a good idea and it can be reviewed at the end of every semester.

10. Assign Classroom Jobs

It is always good to involve students in the classroom procedures rather than keeping a student-teacher barrier.

Faculties can share the classroom tasks with students once in a while to assure their participation in the journey.

This can include updating calendar, posting to a class blog, moderate or review classroom activities, and day to day activities such as attendance or classroom cleanliness.

11. Motivational Games

There are lots of motivational games that can be played in groups, a class or as individuals.

College faculties can find some time in between the lessons to involve them in such games or can even make it a part of the teaching strategies.

12. The Chance to Lead

A good leadership role comes with lots of responsibility and commitment.

It can even alter their personality and can mold them as a better person. So it would be a good idea to give every student a chance to lead during the course.

This will improve their sense of responsibility and motivate them to take risky and challenging roles in life.

13.Welcome Their Ideas

It is important to give students a good space in the classroom and teaching plans.

Always welcome their ideas and discuss them in class and execute them if it sounds good.

This would make them feel important and the feeling of involvement in the teaching keeps them encouraged.

So every student in the classroom will get inspired to express their ideas without a second thought.

14. Celebrate Personal Milestones

It would be a good idea to celebrate the personal milestones of students as a class group which can boost up their spirit to perform well always.

Celebrating as a team also improves the classroom strength and unity and builds up good team spirit. And the same student will feel good to celebrate the milestone of another student with the class team next time.

15. Seminars on Motivation

The college faculties can arrange seminars by professionals on motivation once in a while.

Expert talk sessions and interactive activities would motivate those students who are a step back to come forward and face life on a positive note.

Encouraging students to conduct seminar presentations on motivation after thorough research is also a good idea.

16. Experiential Opportunities

Having practical hands-on experience on the subject would help students to understand it better and provokes them further study different aspects of the subject.

Experiential opportunities are a good platform for students to present or try out what they have studied in the classroom theories which in turn improves their confidence level on the subject.

17. Give Rewards for Achievements

 Recognizing their achievements and appreciating it in a timely manner is important to keep their spirit up.

So it would be good to give some rewards to students for what they achieve in their academic phase as a token of appreciation.

It will be a motivation for them to perform well every next time and inspires other students to perform well too.

18. Give Timely Training

College phase is the time when they build a platform for their career phase.

So it is important to give them timely training on the areas that need improvement.

This keeps them motivated and enhances their confidence level to start their new phase on a high.

Colleges can arrange personality development programs and interactive sessions by professionals to correct their negatives and boost their positives.

19. Track Progress

It is common in college institutions to set up evaluation programs like we already discussed.

However, tracking progress is more important. So faculties should make sure that the database of the evaluation programs are maintained and progress of each student is recorded.

Consider each student’s progress and give them enough guidance and additional training if needed.

20. Set an Example

The best motivational activity by a college faculty is to set an example for his students.

He can guide them from his own experience on how to be a good student and what are the qualities and responsibilities expected out of them.

He can even inspire them from his own success stories and the way hard work and perseverance paid him.

In addition to all these, give them a sense of control to make them feel that they are important. Provide a threat-free environment to express themselves and offer varied experiences to avoid boredom.

Know your students well. So spend some time to talk to them and understand their limitations and do the necessary rather than forcing them to do things that don’t make them comfortable.

Keeping these strategies in mind can help the college authorities to motivate college students and enable them to find success in life. Guiding them on the right path at the right time is important for them to be good citizens of tomorrow.

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Also Read: 12 Interactive Classroom Activities for College Students