Increasing Students’ Motivation and Improving Outcome by Changing the Course Examination from Test to Project on a University Course

Abstract

This paper measures the impact of changing the university course examination from test to project. It was witnessed that the student’s motivation was low, as most students took the exam at the last deadline, and their grades were deficient. In order to increase students’ motivation, grades, and earlier delivery, the paper authors changed the approach. Instead of forcing students to learn for the exam on particular dates, students were given a set of projects to deliver regularly. This paper is trying to answer the following questions: Does the usage of project-based course results in scoring better grades (Q1)? Does using a project-based course increase the student’s motivation to deliver earlier (Q2)? The paper analyzes scores and examination dates for four generations of students- the first two generations were examined through the tests, and the other two were examined through individual projects. The course’s learning objectives remained the same, as well as the learning objectives for the courses that precede the course being examined. The paper shows the following results: The average grade for the students rose from 3.31 to 3.74 (Q1), while the average value of exam date changed from 3.01 to 2.20 (Q2).