Students' perceptions of communications provided by faculty and peer leaders, course motivation, and final project innovativeness in capstone courses

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study:

The purpose of this study was to assess students' perceptions of communications provided by faculty and peer leaders in relationship to both students' perceptions of their course motivation as well as their perceptions of the innovativeness of their final project in single and multidisciplinary capstone courses. The scope of this study was limited to115 students participating in four capstone courses at Oklahoma State University. The study included a mixed method approach including a questionnaire which collected quantitative descriptive, correlational data and qualitative written comments.

Findings and Conclusions:

Student demographic information indicated that 43 respondents (37.4%) were engineering majors, 34 respondents (29.6%) were economics majors, and 38 respondents (33%) were communications majors. Four construct areas were considered including students' perceptions of: communications provided by faculty leaders; students' course motivation; communications provided by peer leaders; and innovativeness of the final project. When considering the four constructs the grand mean scores for all courses were in either the Agree or Strongly Agree classification, expect the engineering course where the grand mean for the innovativeness of final project construct received a grand mean in the Undecided range. The correlations between the constructs demonstrated a variety of relationships. Specifically, in assessing the relationship between students' perceptions of communications provided by peer leaders and students' course motivation, the economics course had a strong correlation with (&#961; =.81; &#945; < .00) and the engineering course had a weak correlation with (&#961; =.18; &#945; < .16). These findings indicate that the relationships between the constructs vary in the four individual courses. It is not clear what factors are responsible for the differences.