Motivational techniques have been successfully used in the workplace to increase worker productivity for many decades. These same techniques can also be used in the classroom to increase learning. This study applies a workplace motivational technique called the Expectancy Theory of Motivation by Victor Vroom to a group of undergraduate architectural engineering technology students. It measures the relative difference in learning between two groups of students: one, an experimental group where the motivational technique is applied, and the other, a control group where it is not. The experiment uses a standard set of readings that are given to both groups of students followed by a multiple choice test. Faculty teaching of the material was not a factor in the experiment, only the motivational technique used by the faculty in the experimental group was. Both study groups are benchmarked prior to performing the experiment. Two different methods of analysis are used: one, descriptive statistics and two, a non-parametric rank sum probability test to show chance was not a factor in this small sample size. A survey was used to collect student attitudes and perceptions on motivating factors. The implication of these findings will be to provide faculty with motivational tools to increase student learning.
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