Providing Technical Support to Sustain Student Motivation and Engagement in Software Engineering Project-Based Learning

In this research paper, drawing from our own and other computing instructors' experiences, we highlight common technical challenges faced by students in software engineering project-based learning (PjBL) and discuss ways in which instructors can support students in overcoming them so that motivation is summoned and sustained. Through the use of practical hands-on experiences, PjBL has been shown to be an effective educational approach. However, unless projects are intentionally designed and supported in a way that summons and sustains student motivation, PjBL is likely to fail to accomplish its goals. Several factors influence student motivation, including their perception of the project's value and how confident they are in their ability to complete it. In particular, challenges that students perceive as insurmountable during the project can significantly weaken their motivation. On the other hand, supporting students to overcome such hurdles can be troublesome, especially in large classes as well as classes with diversity in student backgrounds. To generalize from our own experience, we designed a questionnaire targeted at PjBL computing instructors that contained closed and open questions on technical challenges faced by students, support instructors provided to overcome such challenges, and lessons learned by instructors on the effectiveness of their support. A total of 47 responses were collected from instructors with diverse backgrounds in terms of courses taught, students' years, and class sizes. We categorized the technical challenges into three main categories, namely (a) challenges in installing and configuring software packaged tools, (b) lack of prerequisite knowledge, and (c) challenges while completing project tasks. In this paper, we present the survey results from the three categories of technical challenges, their frequencies, importance, and effective support strategies instructors use to alleviate them.