Navigating the hackathon: Exploring participant experience, confidence and anxiety

Abstract

Hackathons are characterized by their dynamic and collaborative nature, acting as incubators for innovation in diverse contexts. They are celebrated for nurturing creativity and tackling current challenges while offering distinctive educational opportunities. However, participants' lack of confidence and increased anxiety can diminish the utility of a hackathon's outcomes, adversely affecting both the resolution of the challenges at hand and the educational value of the experience. Drawing on 398 responses from verified hackathon participants, we examined associations among experience, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, confidence and anxiety. The findings confirm that experience at hackathons has a beneficial effect on individuals' confidence levels and concurrently diminishes anxiety. Additionally, intrinsic motivations show negative associations with anxiety and positive associations with confidence, while extrinsic motivations have unequivocal effects. These insights deepen our comprehension of the hackathon ecosystem, underscoring the criticality of participant's well‐being and motivation. The ramifications of these findings are multifaceted: they not only inform the enhancement of hackathon frameworks, emphasizing a participant‐focused approach, but also facilitate the strategic incorporation of hackathons within educational and organizational contexts.