ENHANCING LEARNING AND THE UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE: THE INFLUENCE OF PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES AND HOURLY AVAILABILITY ON ANXIETY BEFORE FINAL DEGREE PROJECT

The implementation of the Degrees with the adaptation of Spanish universities to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) meant the incorporation of novelties in subjects, methodologies, evaluation and even time distribution in students and teachers. The subject called Final Degree Project (FDP), present in all degrees, is a challenge for the student since it implies a new kind of subject and evaluation. Coping with these changes can have a negative emotional impact on our students in a way that increases their anxiety about the completion and defense of FDP. Given the extensive literature that supports the negative relationship between anxiety and academic performance, we propose to analyze the influence that different personal and academic factors may have on the anxiety levels of the students enrolled in the subject of FDP. The anxiety levels of a sample of 117 students from two Spanish universities were analyzed through the Spanish adaptation of the State-Trait Anxiety Questionnaire (STAI) and it was found that personal factors such as hourly availability and academic factors such as previous experience with this type of work had a positive influence on the anxiety levels of students. In the realization of the FDP the university students face for the first time a type of subject that implies a great autonomy in the process of learning and in addition it is with a form of evaluation totally novel in its academic life. Preparing them for this course format throughout the degree seems to be an effective way to promote their performance.