Undergraduate Students’ Engagement in Project-Based Learning with an Authentic Context

Despite the widespread adoption of project-based learning in higher education, few empirical studies have explored its impact on situating learners within real-world contexts and enhancing student engagement. This study situates undergraduates in a technology integration course in an authentic context to increase the levels of engagement of the students. The project, requested by real-world clients from an elementary school, enabled students to develop learning resources around topics in need that aligned with state standards. We expected students engaged with real-world clients to demonstrate higher levels of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement compared to those involved in non-real-world context projects. The results of our mixed-methods research revealed increased student engagement with an authentic, real-world context compared to a non-real-world context. The integration of real-world context not only heightened student involvement in the project and strengthened group dynamics but also facilitated a deeper understanding of technology integration and service learning. Implications for future research are also discussed.