Employing extrinsic motivation techniques and optional evaluation activities to promote student learning

Resumen

Traditional degrees, such as Telecommunication engineering, were organized around the idea that students should learn and deeply know some “engineering laws” whose meaning and consequences students had to investigate and internalize. These same laws were employed to solve key problems in typical written exams and evaluation tests. However, nowadays, most of these laws are well-known standards, and deeply investigating each mathematical expression barely contributes to the new manners to access and store information and knowledge. In this new context, nevertheless, theoretical laws and mathematical bases are still very important. Thus, professors face the difficult problem of motivating students to work with theoretical competencies, in a context where they do not feel intrinsic motivation to do it. Therefore, during the first term of the year 2017/18 in the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, a pilot experience has been conducted based on the introduction of optional evaluation activities focused on promoting the student learning. Different pilot groups were defined and organized, where the manner to value the optional evaluation activities was different. Results showed that students demand an extrinsic motivation to develop theoretical competencies, although there is a saturation point above which students do not work on the proposed competencies.