Study of Motivation of Engineering Students on Multinational Design Projects

Abstract

In today’s world, it has become very common to find engineers working on multinational projects. As a result, educational institutions need to prepare students to succeed in this global working environment by providing educational experiences, where the required professional skills can be acquired. The authors have used multinational design projects as a project-based learning activity to prepare students with global competencies. However, as any other learning activity, the pedagogical effectiveness of those projects depends largely on the intrinsic motivation and interest of students. Therefore, the main goal of this paper was to determine the level of motivation of engineering students participating in a multinational collaborative design project, and make a comparison of such indicator based on gender, geographical location, and class standing. For this purpose, a survey based on the intrinsic motivation inventory was administered to students before starting their participation in the multinational project. The data collected provide information in five constructs: interest, perceived competence, pressure, perceived choice, and value. These constructs provide an indication about students’ motivation when undertaking a multinational collaborative project. The engineering design collaboration included students from six different countries, and their responses to the questionnaire were analyzed. A total of 164 responses were considered valid, their responses were statistically analyzed for internal consistency, and proper constructs are selected. Results indicate that there was a high level of motivation to participate in the project, with few significant differences based on geographical location and class standing, not gender. This paper yields good information about students’ interests, beliefs, and feelings when participating in an international collaborative project.