Measure students motivation in activities practices via Discourse Collective Subject

Abstract

This Research to Practice Full Paper describes an study with Problem Based Learning (PBL). PBL promotes knowledge through the motivational appeal that problematization arouses. However, there are still points to be explored and potentialized, with the use of technologies to achieve Motivation. Thus, in this study we seek to understand how students’ motivation to learn can be affected by sending automatic motivational triggers (sounds, notifications, etc.) during the execution of activities, in order to stimulate certain behaviors, such as studying, doing the task, complete an activity. The methodology for the validation of the triggers was developed in two moments: (i) in 2017 with the participation of 60 students of the Software Engineering course; and (ii) in 2018 with 23 students of the second year of the Computer Engineering course. At the end of each of these studies, students’ views were grouped by class and expressed through the construction of the Discourse Collective Subject (DCS). Thus, this study contributes to the discussion and presentation of the DCS as an approach capable of assisting teachers during the evaluation of the activities proposed in the classroom, mainly because it makes it possible to observe the opinion of a group as a single subject.