Abstract:

Introduction:
In order to obtain a Master's degree, it is compulsory for most Master students to write a Final Master Thesis (TFM) and present it in front of a committee at a public defense. Several previous studies have shown that this academic task is faced with medium to high levels of anxiety. In addition, students tend to perceive themselves as not being competent enough to properly write and defend their TFM in public, and their motivation levels towards writing the TFM are quite low.

Objectives:
Our objective is to develop a teaching innovation program with three aims: 1. To improve Master students’ perception of efficacy towards their TFM (self-efficacy), 2. To diminish students’ anxiety levels when dealing with this academic task and 3. To increase students’ motivation levels towards writing their TFM.

Methodology:
The program was conducted within two academic years (2017/18 and 2018/19) at the University of Saragossa, Teruel Campus. Participants were studying a Master's in teaching at secondary schools. There were 30 participants per year. In the first year, five theoretical-practical seminars were designed to provide students the opportunity to develop key competencies needed to write and orally defend their TFM. These competencies include the writing of academic-scientific texts and the acquisition of communication skills. During the first year, the seminars were provided in the students’ classroom by one of the professors. In the second year, the seminars were provided via Edpuzzle, and students were assigned the practical tasks of these seminars through Facebook. This was done for two main reasons: 1. To make the task more motivating for the students through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and 2. To check whether the program can be offered in a more autonomous way, without the need of the professor or the student to be physically present in the classroom. Through a pre-post experimental procedure, we evaluated students’ self-efficacy, their level of anxiety towards their TFM, and their motivation towards writing their TFM in these two years.

Results:
Our results show statistically significant differences in students’ self-efficacy and levels of anxiety after participating in the program during the first year. In other words, students showed to be more effective in writing their TFM as well as in their oral examination. We also found improvements during the second year but they are not as large as those in the first year. Nevertheless, students were more motivated to participate in the teaching innovation program during the second year (when ICT were used) than during the first one.

Conclusions:
Our findings indicate that delivering the seminars through Edpuzzle and Facebook is less efficient in terms of students’ anxiety and self-efficacy than delivering the seminars in the classroom. In contrast, students’ motivation levels are higher when using ICT (i.e., the second year of the program) than when not using ICT. Future studies should check how to improve the efficacy of the in-class seminars while using ICT without diminishing students’ motivation for the task.

Acknowledgment:
This work has been supported by University of Zaragoza: PIIDUZ_19_052, PIIDUZ_19_048, and PIIDUZ_19_177

Keywords:

Self-efficay, Anxiety, Master Thesis.