The real value of experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course: A descriptive study of students' perspective

Abstract

In the engineering design course, the experiential learning project is an effective approach to teach students about hands-on experiments as an engineer. However, the factor for motivation that was lacking in these projects was competition amongst student teams. We had incorporated project-based activities and engineering design competitions that would motivate the interest of engineering students. A theoretical model of creating the value in experiential learning project through contest was developed and applied at the Hung Yen University of Technology and Education. So, what was the real value of experiential learning project through a contest in engineering design course? This study used the questionnaire method with 107 students at the Hung Yen University of Technology and Education who participated in the ABU Robocon 2018 project. The new finding of this study provided some surprises: (1) the prize money of contest was not the major factor for the motivations in students' learning; (2) the attractiveness of a contest theme, more than one way of solving the problem and using high technology were the major factors that motivate students to learn; (3) the experiential learning project through contest had the greatest impact of development on the theoretical knowledge of engineering design, and the skills, experiences and abilities to use technologies, and the power of teamwork to make decisions.

Keywords

ABU-Robocon competition contest engineering design course experiential learning project

Introduction

Engineering design course is used as engineering practices to help students gain insights into three values: (1) Academic value as interdisciplinary integration; (2) Professional value as the skills, experiences and abilities to use technologies and to analyze results; (3) Personal and social value as critical thinking skills and teamwork. The students participate in the engineering design course as practices to become engineers in the future. According to Mills and Treagust,¹ “project is universally used in engineering practice as a unit of work”, “…every task undertaken in professional practice by an engineer will be in relation to a project” (p.8). For students to learn how to think and practice as an engineer, they must be exposed to the experiential learning project for solving problems in the real world, with creative ideas, the selection of technical parameters, and the uncertainty of the factor affecting. The essence of the experiential learning project is to use reflective observations of real-world experiences to initiate a project. We observed that this experiential learning project approach had produced some problems for students producing quality engineering systems. There was no competition amongst student teams. Some teams were interested in producing excellent engineering systems, while the other teams have done only the minimum requirements of the instructor. Many student teams feel the project as a task assigned to them. This problem had elicited a new idea for an experiential learning project approach in engineering design course that would motivate all teams in a competitive context.

In recent years, the social organizations and corporations around the world had tended to sponsor and organize engineering design contests as a way for themselves and society to recognize the potential engineers. The organizers defined a statement on a contest topic that attracted the students' interest to participate in the competition. The research work of Raghav et al.² has shown that students have significantly improved their academic performance in college courses after participating in the contest. This practice led us to the one idea approach about an experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course. This approach had restructured the transformational learning in the project-based learning activity towards solving complex problems in the engineering design contest. In this paper, a descriptive study was conducted to explain in detail the real value of experiential learning project through contest in the engineering design course by students' perspective.

Theoretical framework

Review of related literature

In this section, we observed the latest literature relevant to the research problem. The purpose of this section was to seek information on two aspects: (1) the real value of experiential learning project in engineering design course; (2) the transition to a new approach of experiential learning project through contest.

For aspect 1: What is the value of experiential learning project in engineering design course?

Engineering education programs emphasize the importance of applying theoretical principles, problem solving and technological innovation as key skills required for graduate engineering students. The educational researchers around the world have proposed the learning project as a holistic approach to the attracting students to learn key skills for solving real problems from simple to complex. Learning project is “the most suitable means of achieving effective competence-based education that integrates knowledge, skills and values”,³ learning project is a great approach for students who practiced on engineering design as an engineer.⁴ The reflections of instructors and students on the practice of traditional learning projects show that it emphasized the expectations and efficacy of the final product rather than the emotion and motivation of the student learning.

Wurdinger⁵ emphasizes that learning projects must encourage thinking, planning and implementing ideas to create something that is meaningful to themselves. The experiential learning project is a pedagogical strategy towards engaging projects that would attract students' interest enhances the meaning of technical practice. According to Clark et al.,⁶ engineering students learning concepts in the classroom and applying in the laboratory is not enough; they need to be supplemented with knowledge of real-world practice. The experiential learning project is a direct educational meeting for students to learn how to solve real problems, rather than results. According to Kosnik et al.,⁷the experiential learning project “embeds the practical experience directly into the course content and structure” (p.617), “in-class activities, lectures can provide students with the theories, tools, and frameworks to apply in the project” (p.618). The core idea of experiential education through project-based learning is to connect students' real-world experiences with formal classroom spaces to stimulate critical thinking as students learn new knowledge.⁸ According to Shekar,⁴ each learning project “are integrated with fundamental and technical knowledge of the disciplines” (p.24.4); with themes as “global perspectives, creative future solutions, consumer product design, and manufacturing” (p.24.5). Hanh and Hop⁹ argue that the experiential learning project is “an effective pedagogical strategy to integrate an experiential educational model/theory into student internships” (p.95), and “it is a combination of projects, classroom activities and real experiences to create an engaging course for engineering students” (p.95). The experiential learning project helps students with the opportunity to meet with successful experts, problem-solving creativity, teamwork experience, and creating motivation to learn.¹⁰ The project-based learning is a tool for developing communication skills, establishing trust and teamwork, and developing critical thinking skills that are necessary to solve everyday problems. In addition, the experiential learning projects require students to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge to solve problems, use technology, work together and reflect on their own learning. A brief summary of the real value of experiential learning project in engineering design course is shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

The value of experiential learning project in engineering design course.

1. Academic value

– Integrate theoretical principles into interdisciplinary research.

– Visualization the knowledge of the process engineering design with hands-on experience.

2. Professional value

– Developing skills, experiences and abilities for using technology and analyzing results.

– The discussion and arguments of the team for the design solution, coupled with the uncertainty of the factors affecting as motivation to solve problems of individual students.

3. Personal and social value

– Developing interdisciplinary teamwork skills as the power to make decisions on project issues.

– Helping students use critical thinking skills to learn how to respond intelligently to career situations.

For aspect 2: Why is the transition to a new approach of experiential learning project through contest?

In recent years, competition-based education has been attracting the attention of many researchers. According to Willard and Duffrin,¹¹ project-based activities combined with factor of competition can stimulate the interest of students in the process and results of active learning. In addition, the learning project based on contest is “a productive and enjoyable learning experience for both the students and the teacher” (p. 69), “…students have a higher stake in the outcome of their projects and therefore” (p.70). Carroll¹² emphasized, “competition based learning is essentially project-based learning…”, “the hope is to generate motivation in the students to have the best overall project and eliminate the tendency of just doing enough to get by” (p.23). The positive impact of learning project through engineering design contest is derived from the competition of students for achievement.¹³ Therefore, the project-based activities through contest can increase the interest of students, helping students prepare for the competition that they will encounter in future careers. As Tan et al.¹⁴emphasizes, robot design contests are “an effective tool for engineering education” (p.12.1), “…creating a meaningful design experience for undergraduate engineering students…” (p.12.1). Using the experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course is a great integration for students to learn the engineering design knowledge which is conducted to communicate through the steps of the project. The competitive factors amongst the student teams on achievement in contest are the complement to the shortcomings of traditional experiential projects. The factor of motivation of student teams can be derived from the elements of the competition:

The prize money is high for winning the competition.

The theme of contest is interesting.

Rules of the game which has many challenges to solve.

There is more than one problem-solving creativity and high-tech application.

Many challenges to play as a good player.

So, what elements of the contest had a strong impact on student motivation? What was the real value of experiential learning project through contest? This is the research problem of this article.

Model of creating the value in experiential learning project through contest

We had developed a model of creating the value in experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course (Figure 1). It was the application of Kolb's¹⁵ experiential learning cycle that explains the development of the value of experiential learning project in engineering design course.

The student teams had worked through four phases in experiential learning project through contest:

The beginning phase: The field experience on a theme of contest was provided and explained. The student teams studied the theme of contest by reading the material, watching the demo video to understand the rules of contest, the challenge for the player, the ability to apply high technology, and high prize money for winning. The student teams had to define the problems of mechanical design, electronic circuit design and control programming. The general idea of the engineering design of the team was derived from this as the foundation for the successful experience. The personal and social value was emphasized and developed by sharing information with students in the team.

The design with computer was the second phase. Students had to try to demonstrate the common functions of mechanical elements, electronic circuits and programming to control through the computer for their observations. The academic value of all members can help increase success in this phase. Each member of the team should be assigned tasks based on their abilities.

The third phase was the organization of the information which was the most important phase of the project. Based on the rules of engineering design contest, the student teams had considered and decided on the technical parameters for the parts of the engineering system. Student teams had faced the multi-criteria decision analysis in engineering design which was hard to reach a consensus among members. The professional value can help students to gain more insight into the technical parameters, and enhancing to the results of teamwork to present the overall design for the project.

The fourth phase was the active experimentation on the technical parameters of the teams and individual students. Students had produced and operated to measure the technical parameters in practice. The real results were compared to the theoretical results with the mathematical description in the previous phase for the purpose of partial and overall evaluation of the system. The successful results of the team in this phase were dependent on the academic value of the students in teamwork.

After the fourth phase, the students had to return to the first phase (field experience), for the purpose of operating the system on the field to observe the properties of the frequency response, comparing results to contest rules and achievements of other teams. The new problems of the system can be defined as the starting point for a new learning cycle to motivate the teams to further improve on their robots design. This learning cycle was continuously implemented in a spiral form to develop the value of experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course for the students. Passarelli and Kolb¹⁶ emphasized that all learning is re-learning.

Case study from ABU-Robocon project at UTEHY

This study used the premise of ABU Robocon, and it was an Asian Oceanian College robot competition founded in 2002 by Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, once a year. The contest aims to create friendship among students with similar interests who will lead their countries in the 21st century, as well as enhancing the value of the engineering design of the students. In most cases, ABU Robocon teams were recruited from the national rounds by the organization of the member TV station. Each year, the contest had different themes, but in general, teams must use two or more robots to complete the task within a set period of time. One of the robots was controlled manually or semi-automatically, while the others were automatic. Robot designs had required the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge of mechanical engineering, electronic circuits and programming. Therefore, one of the ABU Robocon teams usually has members from various engineering disciplines. Participating in the ABU Robocon contest was voluntary, so engineering schools had different incentives.

At UTEHY, the ABU Robocon has been used since 2015 as a form of formal learning project in engineering design course. The student teams voluntarily registered to participate in the ABU Robocon project were as educational significant as other projects that students learned how to research, design and produce a technical product. The student completed an ABU Robocon project which was considered to be quality assurance. The student teams were provided with a short lecture to introduce the rules of contest to the project but did not receive any direction on how to construct and complete the final technical product. School-level competition with a panel of judges and referees was established for the presentation teams. Some teams with the highest scores received the honor and the prize money of winning the competition by the school and sponsors. Most teams fully completed the rules of the contest were selected to participate in the national competition with other universities. A brief summary of UTEHY's achievements for ABU Robocon is shown in Table 2.

Table 2.

UTEHY's achievements with ABU Robocon from 2015 to 2018.

Years	Achievements
2015	− With 04 teams entered the national finals: 01 first prize – Vietnam ABU Robocon Championship, 01 second prize− UTEHY's ABU Robocon team represented Vietnam who won the Asia-Pacific Robocon Championship.
2016	− With 04 teams entered the national finals: 01 prize of style
2017	− With 06 teams entered the national finals: 01 second prize, 01 third prize, 01 prize of style
2018	− With 06 teams entered the national finals: 01 third prize, 01 prize of excellent manual control robot.

The concept of the ABU Robocon 2018's Theme & Rules was based on an interesting folk game called “Shuttlecock Throwing,” a traditional culture of some ethnic minorities on the traditional Tet holiday in Vietnam. In this spirit, ABU Robocon teams had designed robots to demonstrate precision, craftsmanship, and high technology that are essential to winning. As usual, Vietnam National Television (with VTV1 & VTV2 channels) always offers the best broadcasting schedule for all live matches of ABU Robocon.

Research questions

The research questions were defined from the ABU Robocon 2018's project at UTEHY which was observed to answer questions about: what was the real value of ABU Robocon project in engineering design course? What were the student learning outcomes in engineering design course through ABU Robocon project?

Research purposes

The finding of the real value of experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course by students' perspective. The specific objectives include:

Exploring the major factor of contest had a strong impact on student motivation.

Describe the major value of experiential project through contest in engineering design course.

Explain the impact of experiential learning project through contest for student learning outcomes.

Methodology

This paper was a descriptive research, in which the questionnaire method was used by the researcher. For UTEHY, the final year engineering students registered to participate in the ABU Robocon 2018's project, who was selected as the subject to observe for this study. All these students come from the fields of electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, mechatronics engineering. With 110 students registered for the ABU Robocon 2018 project, we have observed all of them.

A questionnaire with multiple choice questions was developed to assess the real value of the project by student reflection (Appendix 1). Three main questions were developed to reflect the three elements of the education system of “input - process – output”. The first question was about the factors of ABU Robocon project had a strong impact on student motivation (five items). The second question was about the real value of ABU Robocon project in engineering design course (six items). The third question was about the impact of experiential learning project through contest for student learning outcomes (three items). At the end of the ABU Robocon project, we sent the questionnaire to the students who were asked to provide feedback. This questionnaire was anonymous to enhance the objectivity of the data. Then all data analysis was used by SPSS software (version 22.0).

Assessment method for data

The survey asked the students to rank the items of the ABU Robocon project using the Likert scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree or from 1 = very ineffective to 5 = very effective. It is a five-point scale containing 4 intervals and 5 categories with the ratio 4/5 being equal to 0.8, and we suggested that the mean score of 4.2 can be identified as the strongest level of the ABU Robocon project for student learning.

Results

We had received 107 questionnaires with complete data, and there were no questions left blank. There were 41 students of electrical and electronic engineering (38.3%), 37 students of mechanical engineering (34.6%), 29 students of mechatronic engineering (27.1%).

A Kruskal–Wallis test in SPSS was performed to observe the differences in data between the branch engineering students. The results showed that “p > 0.05” in all cases, so the data were not different between the branch engineering students (Table 3). Therefore, the questionnaire data were aggregated for analysis.

Table 3.

The Kruskal–Wallis test for all data on the value of experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course.

Questions	Items	Abbreviation in SPSS	p
1. What factors of ABU Robocon project had a strong impact on my motivation?	The prize money was high for winning	Q1.1	0.919
	The theme of the contest was interesting	Q1.2	0.623
	Rules of the game had many challenges to solve	Q1.3	0.473
	There was more than one problem-solving creativity and high-tech application	Q1.4	0.089
	Many challenges to play as a good player	Q1.5	0.672
2. How had the ABU Robocon project impacted my learning ?	I had to apply theoretical principles from various subjects to solve problems	Q2.1	0.068
	I learned the theoretical knowledge of the engineering design process through hands-on experience	Q2.2	0.188
	I gained insight into the skills, experiences and abilities to use technologies in engineering design activities	Q2.3	0.458
	The discussion and arguments of the team for the design solution, coupled with the uncertainty of the factors affecting as motivation to solve problems with me	Q2.4	0.113
	I realized the power of teamwork to make decisions for the project	Q2.5	0.396
	I used critical thinking skills to deal intelligently with situations in the design process	Q2.6	0.212
3. What were my feelings about the results of this course?	I learned the basic knowledge about engineering design process	Q3.1	0.511
	The team and I had successfully implemented the design solutions	Q3.2	0.643
	I learned the values of teamwork and critical thinking skills	Q3.3	0.598

The Cronbach’s alpha test in SPSS was performed to observe the reliability of data (Table 4). For the corresponding results, the Cronbach's alpha value was greater than “0.6” in all cases. With item “Q1.1” (the prize money was high for winning), Cronbach's alpha if item deleted value (0.809) was greater than Cronbach's alpha value (0.761), so the item “Q1.1” was rejected.

Table 4.

The Cronbach’s alpha test for first data on the value of experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course.

Groups	Cronbach's alpha	Items	Corrected item – total correlation	Cronbach's alpha if item deleted
1. What factors of ABU Robocon project had a strong impact on my motivation ?	.761	Q1.1	.333	.809
		Q1.2	.590	.706
		Q1.3	.603	.700
		Q1.4	.514	.723
		Q1.5	.724	.637
2. How had the ABU Robocon project i mpacted my learning ?	.805	Q2.1	.561	.776
		Q2.2	.569	.774
		Q2.3	.484	.791
		Q2.4	.550	.778
		Q2.5	.600	.768
		Q2.6	.622	.760
3. What were my feelings about the results of this course?	.678	Q3.1	.546	.511
		Q3.2	.498	.576
		Q3.3	.433	.658

Note: With N=107, Cronbach's alpha value >0.6, Corrected item – total correlation value >0.3.

Therefore, the prize money of the contest was not meaningful to the process and results of the project for engineering students. Similar to the conclusion of Chung,¹⁷ “prizes for the competitions were not the major factor for the motivations” (p.5). According to Lei et al.,¹⁸ “despite the motivation by the award, the winners were more moved by the sense of achievements” (p.7), “Sense of self-respect and desire for winning are characteristics of the students at college age” (p.7). We had suggested that the prize money of contest should be used as an incentive for student teams, and it was not a major factor for student motivation.

We removed item “Q1.1”, Cronbach’s alpha test for the second data (Table 5). For the corresponding result, the Cronbach's alpha value were greater than “0.6” in all cases. For all items, the corrected item – total correlation value were greater than “0.3”, the Cronbach's alpha if item deleted value were less than the Cronbach's alpha value, so all data were reliable.

Table 5.

The Cronbach’s alpha test for second data on the value of experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course.

Groups	Cronbach's alpha	Items	Corrected item – total correlation	Cronbach's alpha if item deleted
1. What factors of ABU Robocon project had a strong impact on my motivation ?	.809	Q1.2	.643	.758
		Q1.3	.606	.772
		Q1.4	.601	.773
		Q1.5	.693	.734
2. How had the ABU Robocon project impacted my learning ?	.805	Q2.1	.561	.776
		Q2.2	.569	.774
		Q2.3	.484	.791
		Q2.4	.550	.778
		Q2.5	.600	.768
		Q2.6	.622	.760
3. What were my feelings about the results of this course?	.678	Q3.1	.546	.511
		Q3.2	.498	.576
		Q3.3	.433	.658

Note: With N=107, Cronbach's alpha value >0.6, Corrected Item – total correlation value >0.3.

The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) test in SPSS was performed to observe the validity of all data (Table 6).

Table 6.

The EFA test for the value of experiential learning project through contest in engineering design course.

Groups	KMO	p	Initial Eigenvalues
Groups	KMO	p	Total	Cumulative %
1. What factors of ABU Robocon project had a strong impact on my motivation ?	.786	.000	2.572	64.312
2. How had the ABU Robocon project impacted my learning ?	.772	.000	1.034	68.141
3. What were my feelings about the results of this course?	.846	.000	1.828	60.937

Note: With N=107, KMO value > 0.5, p < 0.05.

EFA: exploratory factor analysis.

For the corresponding results in all cases, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) value was greater than “0.5”, p-value was less than “0.05”, the Eigenvalues value “Total” was greater than “1.00”, the Cumulative value was greater than “50%”, so all data set was statistically significant.

Discussion

Question 1: What was the real value of ABU Robocon project in engineering design course?

Problem 1: What factors of ABU Robocon project had a strong impact on student motivation?

A Friedman analysis in SPSS was done to observe problem 1 (Table 7). The H₀ hypothesis of the Friedman test, and the mean values for the factors of ABU Robocon project had a strong impact on student motivation were not different.

Table 7.

The Friedman test for the factors of ABU Robocon project had a strong impact on student motivation.

Items^a	Mean	Std. deviation^b
(Q1.2) The theme of the contest was interesting?	4.24	0.586
(Q1.3) Rules of the game which had many challenges to solve?	4.27	0.603
(Q1.4) There was more than one problem-solving creativity and high-tech application?	4.39	0.695
(Q1.5) Many challenges to play as a good player?	4.08	0.821

Note: N=107, p = 0.026 (Friedman test).

^aStrongly disagree = 1, Disagree = 2, Neutral = 3, Agree = 4, Strongly agree = 5.

^bStandard deviation.

The results of Friedman test showed p-value = “0.026” (p < 0.05), so the hypothesis H₀ was rejected, indicating the difference between the items. Accordingly, the first rank was “Q1.4”, the second rank was “Q1.3”, the third rank was “Q1.2”, the fourth rank was “Q1.5”. With high scores (mean ≥ 4.2), the top three items (Q1.2, Q1.3 and Q1.4) were selected to continue the Spearman analysis for “Problem 3”.

The three major factors of contest which had a strong impact on student motivation include: “more one of problem-solving creativity and high-tech application”, “rules of the game had many challenges to solve”, and “the interesting theme of the contest”. This result had further clarified the conclusion of Willard and Duffrin,,¹¹ “project-based learning with the added element of competition can serve to develop numerous student skills and stimulate student interest in course content” (p.72).

Problem 2: What was the real value of ABU Robocon project for the students?

A Friedman test in SPSS was done to observe problem 2 (Table 8). The H₀ hypothesis of the Friedman test and the mean values for the real value of the ABU Robocon project for the students were not different.

Table 8.

The Friedman test for the real value of ABU Robocon project in engineering design course for the students.

Items^a	Mean	Std. deviation
(Q2.1) I had to apply theoretical principles from various subjects to solve problems?	4.04	0.662
(Q2.2) I learned the theoretical knowledge of the engineering design process through hands-on experience?	4.37	0.564
(Q2.3) I gained insight into the skills, experiences and abilities to use technologies in engineering design activities?	4.33	0.554
(Q2.4) The discussion and arguments of the team for the design solution, coupled with the uncertainty of the factors affecting as motivation to solve problems with me?	4.19	0.633
(Q2.5) I realized the power of teamwork to make decisions for the project?	4.49	0.543
(Q2.6) I used critical thinking skills to deal intelligently with situations in the design process?	4.18	0.654

Note: N=107, p = 0.000 (Friedman test).

^aStrongly disagree = 1, Disagree = 2, Neutral = 3, Agree = 4, Strongly agree = 5.

The results of Friedman test showed that p-value = “0.000” (p < 0.05), so the hypothesis H₀ was rejected, indicating the difference between the items. Accordingly, the first rank was “Q2.5”, the second rank was “Q2.2”, the third rank was “Q2.3”, the fourth rank was “Q2.4”, the fifth rank was “Q2.6”, and the sixth rank was “Q2.1”. With high scores (mean ≥ 4.2), the top three items (Q2.2, Q2.3 and Q2.5) were selected to continue the Spearman analysis for “Problem 3&5”. The results of the items (Q2.2, Q2.3 and Q2.5) had further clarified the conclusion of Willard and Duffrin,¹¹ project-based learning and competition incorporated into a course “provides an opportunity for students to apply newly acquired skills in meaningful and productive ways, while increasing their retention of the new material” (p.72). The competition helped students to understand the concepts in engineering design process and applying the concepts to solve a practical problem.¹³

The experiential learning project through contest had the greatest impact on the development of social value for engineering students, with mean value of item “Q2.5” (power of teamwork to make decisions) which was very high (mean = 4.49). Similar to the conclusion of Willard and Duffrin,¹¹ “It challenged everyone’s creativity and helped people learn teamwork and group effort” (p.72), “it was a good method for developing interpersonal communication, critical thinking, and team-building skills” (p.72). In addition, “the students taught by competition-based learning approach devoted themselves more in the discussion and interaction in the course”.¹⁸

Problem 3: What was the correlation between the major factors of contest and the value of ABU Robocon project in engineering design course?

A Spearman test is performed to observe the correlation between the main factors of contest attracting students and the value of the engineering design course. The H₀ hypothesis of the Spearman test showed that items were not correlated.

In the correlations table, match the row to the column between the two ordinal variables.

If the p-value (Sig.) is less than “0.05”, the H₀ hypothesis is rejected, i.e. there is evidence of mutual relationship between the two variables.

If the p-value is more than “0.05”, the H₀ hypothesis is accepted, i.e. there is no correlation between the two variables.

In addition, the correlation coefficient value is the actual correlation value that denotes magnitude and direction. Higher rho coefficients denote a stronger magnitude of relationship between the variables. Smaller rho coefficients denote weaker relationships. As one value goes up, then the other value also goes up. Also, as one value goes down, then the other value goes down too.

In the corresponding results (Table 9), the new findings are drawn:

Table 9.

The Spearman test for the correlation between the major factors of contest and the value of ABU Robocon project in engineering design course.

			Q1.2	Q1.3	Q1.4
Spearman's rho	Q2.2	Correlation coefficient	.063	.328^a	.312^a
		Sig. (two-tailed)	.659	.019	.026
		N	107	107	107
	Q2.3	Correlation coefficient	.348^a	.388^b	.217
		Sig. (two-tailed)	.012	.005	.126
		N	107	107	107
	Q2.5	Correlation coefficient	.308^a	.350^*	.513^b
		Sig. (two-tailed)	.028	.012	.000
		N	107	107	107

^aCorrelation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

^bCorrelation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).

An interesting theme of contest (column Q1.2) was strong correlation which helps students gain insight into skills, experiences and abilities to use technologies (p = 0.012), and improves teamwork skills to make decisions for the project (p = 0.028).

The challenge rules of the contest (column Q1.3) was correlation the development of all the value of learning project in engineering design course (p < 0.05 in all cases). It had the most impact on the development of the skills, experiences and abilities to use technologies of students (p = 0.005).

A contest was more than one problem-solving creativity and high-tech application (column Q1.4) was correlated with the development of the theoretical knowledge of engineering design through hands-on experience (p = 0.026), and the power of teamwork to make decisions (p = 0.000).

Question 2: What were the student learning outcomes in engineering design course through ABU Robocon project?

Problem 4: What was the impact of the ABU Robocon project for the student learning outcomes?

A Friedman test in SPSS was done to observe problem 4 (Table 10). The H₀ hypothesis of the Friedman test and the mean values of the student learning outcomes in the engineering design course were not different.

Table 10.

The Friedman test for the impact of the ABU Robocon project for the student learning outcomes.

Items^a	Mean	Std. deviation
(Q3.1) I learned the basic knowledge about engineering design process?	4.22	0.610
(Q3.2) The team and I had successfully implemented the design solutions?	3.98	0.616
(Q3.3) I learned the values of teamwork and critical thinking skills?	4.41	0.606

Note: N=107, p= 0.000 (Friedman test).

^aVery ineffective = 1, Ineffective = 2, Somewhat effective = 3, Effective = 4, Very effective = 5.

The results of Friedman test showed p-value = “.000” (p < 0.05), so the hypothesis H₀ was rejected, indicating the difference between the items. Accordingly, the first rank was “teamwork and critical thinking skills” (personal and social value), the second rank was “the basic knowledge about engineering design process” (academic value), and the third rank was “the team and I have successfully implemented the design solutions” (professional value).

The students said that the implementation of design solutions was not successful with the expectations of their team, with the mean value of item “Q3.2” was “3.98” less than “4.2”. Because the competition for achievement amongst teams had prompted the students to further improve their product. Willard and Duffrin¹¹ also showed similar conclusions, “students had requested the elimination of the paper that was due at the end of the competition” (p.72).

Problem 5: What was the correlation between the value of ABU Robocon project and student learning outcomes?

A Spearman test was performed to observe the correlation between the development of the value in the process of engineering design, and student learning outcomes (Table 11). The H₀ hypothesis of the Spearman test shows that items were not correlated.

Table 11.

The Spearman test for the correlation between the value of ABU Robocon project and student learning outcomes.

			Q2.2	Q2.3	Q2.5
Spearman's rho	Q3.1	Correlation coefficient	.280^a	.524^b	.428^b
		Sig. (two-tailed)	.046	.000	.002
		N	107	107	107
	Q3.2	Correlation coefficient	.061	.413^b	.187
		Sig. (two-tailed)	.670	.003	.188
		N	107	107	107
	Q3.3	Correlation coefficient	.347^a	.282^a	.458^b
		Sig. (two-tailed)	.012	.045	.001
		N	107	107	107

^aCorrelation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

^bCorrelation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).

In the corresponding results (Table 11), the new findings are drawn:

The learning outcomes of the basic knowledge about engineering design (row Q3.1), and teamwork and critical thinking skills (row Q3.3) were strongly correlated with all values of ABU Robocon project (p < 0.05). Thus, the experiential learning project through contest is an effective approach to develop engineering design knowledge, critical thinking and team building.

The successful outcome of the team's design solutions (row Q3.2) was only correlated with the development of the skills, experiences and abilities to use the technologies of all individual students (Q2.3). It was suggested that student teams should be the recruitment of individual students from different branches of engineering, which brings more success to the final engineering product.

Conclusion

In this paper, the experiential learning project through contest had proven to be an effective approach in engineering design course. Project-based activities combined with contest had really stimulated the students' motivation. The experiential learning project through contest had strongly impacted the development of personal and social value, and academic value of the students in engineering design course. Therefore, it is limited to whether students will undertake future industrial projects or not which should be further explored and developed in the next study. But this was undeniable that the experiential learning project through contest was a useful experience for students to learn the basic knowledge about engineering design process, teamwork and critical thinking skills.

As a recommendation comes from the new findings of this study: the engineering school should use the experiential learning project through contest as a formal project form to improve the effectiveness of the engineering design course.

As a hint for further study: A study comparing the effectiveness of the traditional project and experiential learning project through contest will be conducted in the future.

Footnotes

Author's note

Nguyen Van Hanh is now affiliated with School of Engineering Pedagogy, Hanoi university of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Appendix 1

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