With the introduction of the credit-based education in Vietnamese higher education, teachers are expected to spend more time to familiarize themselves with the new system at the start. They also need to be adaptable and resourceful to accommodate their students’ arising needs and institutional changes. This paper outlines one teacher’s attempt to motivate students’ learning in the course History of English Literature through the employment of Cottrell’s CREAM framework in the context of credit-based learning arrival. Students’ feedback shows that they are highly engaged in the lesson and feel more interested in reading as well as writing by joining various activities organized by the teacher. As a result, their study has become more creative, reflective, effective, active and motivated. It is implied that teachers can make use of the CREAM strategy for designing other meaningful activities to motivate their students to learn other subjects.