Effect of Project Constraints on Student Motivation and Performance in a Manufacturing Engineering Technology Program

Course projects are foundational to engineering education.Nearly all engineering and engineering technology programs have several courses that require a course project.This paper explores student motivation and performance for different levels of choice allowed in course projects.Cofactors explored included percentage of course grade, content of the course, and individual versus group projects.The amount of experience working in the field was estimated for each student since this may also have an effect on level of choice preferred.Results show a complicated relationship that should be explored further.Very generally, it appears that students with more experience in the field prefer and are more motivated by fewer restrictions on choice of project.Those with little to no experience prefer more structured projects.However, there is a lot of variation in the data which appears to be attributed to numerous factors.A suggested approach is to increase the level of choice as students progress through the program, while also always giving students the option to suggest their own project subject to instructor approval.