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2020 BEST PIC III PAPER and BEST OVERALL PAPER WINNER - Do Open-Ended Design Projects Motivate First-Year Engineering Students?

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

WEDNESDAY PLENARY: Featuring Best Zone and PIC Papers & Corporate Member Council Keynote Speaker, Sponsored by EngineeringCAS

Tagged Topic

Corporate Member Council

Page Count

16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--36543

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/36543

Download Count

318

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Paper Authors

biography

Chao Wang Arizona State University

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Chao Wang received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is currently a senior lecturer in Ira. A Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

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Abstract

BEST PIC III AND OVERALL BEST PAPER WINNER

This complete research paper examines students’ situational motivation responses to open-ended design projects with varying degrees of autonomy control in a freshman Introduction to Engineering course. Four sections of the course were given different project themes with different constraints on scope and materials. The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS) survey, an instrument to measure four types of motivation (intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, external regulation and amotivation) based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), was administered weekly to the students enrolled in the four sections during the nine-week open-ended design project. A Basic Needs Satisfaction Scale (BNSS) survey was given at the end of the semester to measure the degree to which three basic psychological needs, autonomy, relatedness, and competence, were satisfied. Quantitative analysis reveals that the open-ended design project with the least constraints prompts more positive self-determination compared to the one with the most constraints. The provision of choice and control has a more prominent impact on female students’ motivation than on male students. The perceived need satisfaction of competence may play a role in shaping students’ motivational responses.

Wang, C. (2021, July), 2020 BEST PIC III PAPER and BEST OVERALL PAPER WINNER - Do Open-Ended Design Projects Motivate First-Year Engineering Students? Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36543

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