Thinking about Keller's ARCS Model

The first time I heard about Keller's ARCS Model was actually 3 or 4 weeks ago in my Strategies for Teaching Higher Education class.  While most Education or IT folks might think that the fact that I had never heard of this until then is crazy, please remember that I'm a Communication student.  

The woman in my class gave a brief teaching demonstration about the ARCS model and as an in-class exercise did a quick analysis of my students' motivation in my Intro to Public Speaking class and demonstrated where they likely fell on the model/scale(?).  The results were quite depressing.  Since my class is a required class, many of my students who major in anything dealing with science, math or computers have a hard time believing that my class is relevant to them.  Also, their confidence is rather low (or for some, non-existent).  As you can imagine, public speaking scares most students.  As Jerry Seinfeld once stated, "People would rather be the one dead than the one giving the eulogy".  Many students feel like they have nothing important to say, that other people will think they are stupid, or that they will just plain forget what they were going to talk about.   Satisfaction seems to be low as well.  It is hard for my students to have positive feelings about learning how to speak publicly when many of them feel like they have to throw up when they stand in front of everyone.  As the instructor, I feel like any kind of positive reinforcement I give to them after they perform is canceled out by the negative psychological feelings or physiological pain they are enduring when they are performing. So, since many of my students don't see how the class is relevant, have low confidence in doing well and feel little satisfaction from the course, I feel my ability to gain their attention or to get them excited about an assignment is hindered.  

One of the questions I asked Dr. Keller dealt with the issues I presented above.  I basically asked him: What if the reasons for a student not being motivated are out of the instructors control?  

Tonight we will be meeting with Dr. Keller online and maybe he will address my question.  I will make sure to give an update on his presentation as well as how I felt using WIMBA for the first time! Wish me luck!