Abstract
There have been different active-learning initiatives introduced in academia to provide engineering students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to be competitive in the global market. These initiatives have been in response to the need in the corporate world for engineers with exposure to global collaborative environments. Consequently, multinational collaborative design projects have been used by the authors as means of introducing professional global skills to engineering students while exposing them to a project-based learning experience. This educational activity is expected to motivate students so that they can start developing the professional skills that will help them to overcome difficulties and to carry out the project successfully. However, this activity faces many challenges including, among others, cultural and academic background differences, language and time zone barriers, and issues with communication tools. Therefore, this work compares the motivation of students before and after their participation in a multinational design project, using gender and class standing as differentiating parameters. To accomplish this objective, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) was adapted to the implemented multinational collaborative experience and administered to the participating students. For this study, three motivation constructs are taken into consideration: (a) interest/enjoyment, (b) perception of choice, and (c) perceived competence. Results are discussed based on the research questions posed for this comparative work, and result reflections are presented.
Highlights
Globalization has changed the way companies conduct business, and how they design, build and sell their products, companies are utilizing a larger pool of capable and experienced professionals worldwide, partially due to advancements in ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), and are integrating their skills and knowledge through the conformation of multinational interdisciplinary collaborative teams
Universities around the world are adopting active learning techniques that engage students so their motivation and the depth of their learning is increased while being trained in the required skills [5] and there are educational experiences driven by supranational governments such as Erasmusplus [6] and NSE [7], or by alliances with other institutions like Alliance4Tech [8] and IDEA League [9] that help to develop global competences and foster active learning
The objective of this study is to find out if the actual participation in the multinational design project maintained the same level of motivation for the participant students, and how such motivation varies by gender and class status
Summary
Globalization has changed the way companies conduct business, and how they design, build and sell their products, companies are utilizing a larger pool of capable and experienced professionals worldwide, partially due to advancements in ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), and are integrating their skills and knowledge through the conformation of multinational interdisciplinary collaborative teams. Universities around the world are adopting active learning techniques that engage students so their motivation and the depth of their learning is increased while being trained in the required skills [5] and there are educational experiences driven by supranational governments such as Erasmusplus [6] and NSE [7], or by alliances with other institutions like Alliance4Tech [8] and IDEA League [9] that help to develop global competences and foster active learning One of those experiences is the one presented in this report, with the participation of several institutions from the Americas and Italy, and the aim to promote global collaboration in engineering students, developing related professional and interpersonal skills, and increasing motivation towards the subject being studied [10]
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