Investigating Student Motivation in a Curricular Hackathon

Christopher Rennick; Silas Ifeanyi; Mary A. Robinson

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) - Student Motivation and Learning
Tagged Division: Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 15
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/56893

Paper Authors

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Christopher Rennick University of Waterloo orcid.org/0000-0003-1682-3311

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Chris Rennick, PhD P.Eng. received his B.A.Sc., Honours Electrical Engineering in 2007 and his M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 2009, both from the University of Windsor, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Chris' PhD from the University of Waterloo investigated how knowledge and personal epistemology of novice designers relate to their design behaviours. Chris is currently an Engineering Educational Developer with the Pearl Sullivan Engineering Ideas Clinic at the University of Waterloo. Chris is a fellow of the Canadian Engineering Education Association.

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Silas Ifeanyi University of Waterloo

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Mary A. Robinson University of Waterloo

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Mary Robinson (she/her) is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, at the University of Waterloo, where she also serves as Associate Dean Outreach, Equity and Diversity (since May 2021). Mary received both her BASc and MASc in Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo and started teaching in 2007.

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Abstract

This paper describes the multi-year development and implementation of a curricular hackathon for first year Mechatronics Engineering students and investigates its impact on student motivation. Curricular hackathons have previously been defined as short, high-intensity social experiences that guide students through the design-build-test cycle of an engineering design problem. Curricular hackathons include opportunities for student reflection and achieve some level of integration and/or embedding in a program’s curriculum [citation omitted]. These open-ended events are intended to build intrinsic motivation in students through the three mechanisms identified in self-determination theory (viz. satisfying the needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy) by developing student self-efficacy in engineering design, introducing them to their discipline, classmates, and instructors, and connecting their classroom learning to real-world problems. The problem space for this event was “audio engineering”, which had students construct music synthesizers using microcontrollers and other electronics components. This event was run as a short, pilot activity in fall 2022, before being expanded into a two-day long course activity in fall 2023 and 2024. This activity has also been used in a series of extra-curricular workshops (offered at various times in 2023 and 2024) for students enrolled in the Faculties of Engineering and Math, to motivate students, teach practical skills, and introduce more advanced topics like applications of artificial intelligence in audio/music. Previous research at this institution on extra-curricular hackathons using the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS) has shown that gender-diverse populations may exhibit less intrinsic motivation than their male peers when participating in hackathons with the general student population, but that events designed to be welcoming to gender-diverse participants can increase their intrinsic motivation. This study – in addition to describing the audio engineering activity – seeks to extend this investigation on student motivation to a curricular hackathon, which was a mandatory activity as part of an introductory engineering design course in the Mechatronics Engineering curriculum. Students were invited to fill in a short survey, which included a series of demographics questions and the SIMS instrument at two points during the fall 2024 offering: at the start of the first day of the curricular hackathon, and halfway through the second day of the event held a week later. In the post-event survey, the majority of respondents felt they gained knowledge, felt welcome, and were prepared for this event, which were all positive indicators of the activity design and its integration into the academic semester. An investigation into the motivations of student participants in the activity revealed that intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were the dominant motivators for both woman- and man-identifying participants, implying that students were predominantly internally motivated to take part in the activity. However, woman-identifying participants reported lower intrinsic motivation levels than the men.

Citation
Format

Rennick, C., & Ifeanyi, S., & Robinson, M. A. (2025, June), Investigating Student Motivation in a Curricular Hackathon Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/56893

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This paper describes the multi-year development and implementation of a curricular hackathon for first year Mechatronics Engineering students and investigates its impact on student motivation. 
Curricular hackathons have previously been defined as short, high-intensity social experiences that guide students through the design-build-test cycle of an engineering design problem. Curricular hackathons include opportunities for student reflection and achieve some level of integration and/or embedding in a program’s curriculum [citation omitted].  These open-ended events are intended to build intrinsic motivation in students through the three mechanisms identified in self-determination theory (viz. satisfying the needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy) by developing student self-efficacy in engineering design, introducing them to their discipline, classmates, and instructors, and connecting their classroom learning to real-world problems. 
The problem space for this event was “audio engineering”, which had students construct music synthesizers using microcontrollers and other electronics components.  This event was run as a short, pilot activity in fall 2022, before being expanded into a two-day long course activity in fall 2023 and 2024.  This activity has also been used in a series of extra-curricular workshops (offered at various times in 2023 and 2024) for students enrolled in the Faculties of Engineering and Math, to motivate students, teach practical skills, and introduce more advanced topics like applications of artificial intelligence in audio/music.
Previous research at this institution on extra-curricular hackathons using the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS) has shown that gender-diverse populations may exhibit less intrinsic motivation than their male peers when participating in hackathons with the general student population, but that events designed to be welcoming to gender-diverse participants can increase their intrinsic motivation.  This study – in addition to describing the audio engineering activity – seeks to extend this investigation on student motivation to a curricular hackathon, which was a mandatory activity as part of an introductory engineering design course in the Mechatronics Engineering curriculum. Students were invited to fill in a short survey, which included a series of demographics questions and the SIMS instrument at two points during the fall 2024 offering: at the start of the first day of the curricular hackathon, and halfway through the second day of the event held a week later.   
In the post-event survey, the majority of respondents felt they gained knowledge, felt welcome, and were prepared for this event, which were all positive indicators of the activity design and its integration into the academic semester.
An investigation into the motivations of student participants in the activity revealed that intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were the dominant motivators for both woman- and man-identifying participants, implying that students were predominantly internally motivated to take part in the activity. However, woman-identifying participants reported lower intrinsic motivation levels than the men. 
AU  - Christopher Rennick
AU  - Silas Ifeanyi
AU  - Mary A. Robinson
CY  - Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
DA  - 2025/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Investigating Student Motivation in a Curricular Hackathon
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/56893
ER  -