Students’ perceptions and motivation in an industrial engineering and management program along their academic journey: first results

Abstract

An ongoing study about what motivates/demotivates students of an Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) program will be introduced. The reasons behind students’ choice and the main factors that motivate/demotivate them, throughout the different years, will be explored. This study is part of a longitudinal one based on information from IEM students’ motivation and perceptions throughout their academic journey (five years). The students anonymously completed an online questionnaire applied in two different moments (end of each semester) to all IEM students. Based on the answers to three open questions (“What motivated me the most?”, “What motivated me the least?”, “What could contribute to increase my motivation?”), a mix approach will be carried out, to follow students’ perceptions, experiences and motivation through their academic years. Also, a question allowing students to rate their motivation in the semester (from “always motivated” to “never motivated”) was included. As a first study, 2016/17 academic first year will be analysed. From a population of 334 students, 66 (20%) in the first semester and 64 (19%) in the second semester answered the questionnaire. Although the sample’s dimension can difficult the statistical inference, the study revealed some interesting results. Six main categories of motivation/demotivation factors were identified: the program go from the curricular content; companies contact; the learning methodology; teamwork; the teacher-student relationship; the final assessment, the time management, curricular units and the existence of project. An important issue to highlight is the use of active learning approaches which strongly contribute to student’s motivation and engagement. The majority of students perceived their motivation as “sometimes motivated” (65% in the first semester and 59% in the second). The diversity of answers to the same questions show how different students are. In general, this can be seen as a drag as, and most