2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Motivation can affect learning, and there will be variations in students’ motivation for learning to use computational tools such as MATLAB. In this research, we seek to determine whether differences in motivation correlate with students’ intended engineering major. Students from a large midwestern state university were surveyed about their interest, perceive utility value, and self-efficacy specifically for MATLAB as they were learning to use it in their first semester. Initial data for n = 174 students indicate that variations in these factors do not clearly align with intended major, gender, or prior math experience. These results will be compared to ongoing studies that focus on students in Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering sub-disciplines. Findings will also be compared to data on students from a small private university with an interdisciplinary engineering degree. Understanding the initial motivation for learning to use computational tools and programming can help elucidate what factors might lead to reduced motivation for this increasingly critical skill.