Effects of concept map approach on students' attitude and motivation towards documenting computing capstone projects

Abstract

Given their importance in assessing the objectives of computing programs, capstone projects have been included in the present curriculum. Through these projects, the issues in software development practice are directly experienced by the students. This paper provided students with a full picture of these issues by using concept maps. To present a comprehensive rubricbased documentation of this project, this paper employs a conceptual map instructional approach and finds a significant overlap between the management issues associated with the project management life cycle and the technical issues associated with the software development life cycle. Although these issues must be treated separately, they must be related with each other in software project reporting. A questionnaire survey is employed to measure the students' attitude and motivation (i.e., drivers of teaching) towards using proposed concept map to support project documentation. The survey findings indicate that the learning motivation and attitude of students can be improved by employing the proposed teaching approach. Effects of concept map approach on students' attitude 71Keywords: capstone project; concept maps; technical reporting.Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Al-Dmour, A., Gasaymeh, A-M., Abuhelaleh, M. and Almi'ani, M. (2017) 'Effects of concept map approach on students' attitude and motivation towards documenting computing capstone projects', Int.

The Effects of Concept Mapping Instruction on Students’ Attitudes, Motivations, and Self-Efficacy in Educational Technology Class

“…The results are aligned with previous research that showed that a concept mapping approach to teaching enhanced students' attitudes toward conducting projects in the information technology field (Al-Dmour et al, 2017). In addition, the results are aligned with previous research that has shown that a concept mapping approach can enhance students' attitudes toward learning different topics in different fields including circular and rotational motion in physics (Luchembe et al, 2017), and vocabulary acquisition in language learning (Khoshsima et al, 2016).…”

“…Some studies have reported positive effects of the use of concept mapping on students' attitudes and motivations for conducting computing projects. For instance, reference (Al-Dmour, Gasaymeh, Abuhelaleh, & Almi'ani, 2017) examined the effect of the concept mapping approach on undergraduate information technology students' attitudes and motivations towards documenting a computing capstone project. The results showed that the use of concept mapping as a tool to support student learning had a positive influence on their attitudes and motivations The researchers found that the use of the concept mapping instructional approach to prepare students to conduct a computing project enhanced their communication of their ideas related to the project, helped them in understanding the structure of the project, and improved their motivation and attitudes towards conducting the project.…”

“…Five-point Likert-type scales were used in the second, third, and fourth parts of the questionnaire. The questionnaire questions were developed based on previous research that focused on measuring students' attitudes, motivations, and sense of self-efficacy (e.g., Chiou, 2008;Nobahar et al, 2013;Al-Dmour et al, 2017). The validity of the questionnaire was verified by presenting it to a group of experts.…”