The Implementation of an Intervention Plan to Improve Student Motivation and Performance in Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Capstone

摘要

Motivation and performance play an integral role in the success of engineering students at the collegiate level. Professors face challenges between the diversity of the students and diversity in engineering disciplines, creating the need to reform education in the field of engineering. The purpose of the study is to identify motivational changes and implement an intervention plan incorporating strategies, discussions, and approaches to adapt the educational system to work for an assortment of student populations. The study uses an adapted version of the Motivational Student Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), to measure the motivation of two different cohorts of students throughout capstone design courses in comparison to their respective performance. The five motivation factors studied were: cognitive value, self-regulation, presentation anxiety, intrinsic value, and self-efficacy. Statistical Analysis was performed between the motivation factors and demographic populations of the students (male vs. female, domestic vs. international), as well as within populations. The first cohort of students were the control cohort, experiencing the typical senior design capstone requirements. The second cohort of students experienced the implementation of an intervention plan to better prepare them for the senior design capstone sequence. The intervention plan entailed changes made to Design Methodologies, a precursor course to capstone completed during the junior year. This research will evaluate whether these changes affected the students' initial motivational levels among different demographics. It is important to note that the changes made to Design Methodologies were not related to the content of the course; rather the changes were intended to better familiarize the students with their upcoming tasks and goals for senior design capstone.The findings of the two-year longitudinal study comparing motivational factors and performance of the two mechanical engineering senior design capstone course cohorts are presented: the control cohort using the standard teaching methods for Senior Design Capstone at the university and the test cohort undergoing the intervention plan in the curriculum. The results show that the intervention plan made a positive impact on the student factors, especially for the international student population. More importantly, the intervention plan focused on promoting positive reinforcement regarding motivational factors rather than negative reinforcement.