Ordinary students, extraordinary results: What factors affect student participation in experiential opportunities in Competitive Teams?

Abstract

McMaster University has recently made major investments in competitive engineering teams. Student participants in the teams benefit from technical skill development, career relevant experiences, and leadership opportunities. However, the number of students involved in these activities is currently limited, and we would like to serve more students with these programs. The objective of this work is to better understand the factors associated with participation or non-participation in the competitive teams. The research team studied both competitive team participators and non-participators through quantitative and qualitative methods (mixed-methods). The first (qualitative) stage of the study was an online 15-question survey. Students who fully completed the survey had the option to participate in focus groups. Overall, the students’ responses were more similar than they were different. The differences between the groups were: Hours per week on extracurricular, Do not currently have enough time, Existing extracurriculars of interest, Do not have time due to religious or cultural activities, Prefer to work alone, and Feel welcome in engineering. The small number of significant differences between groups is an encouraging finding, because it means that the barriers to broader participation in the teams may be small. If the students who currently participate are similar to the non-participants, similar excellent learning outcomes may be possible. The quantitative findings were examined for insights to establish best practices for encouraging broad participation.