Abstract:

This paper describes an on-going study tailored for Millennials, with the intention of exploiting their traits to leverage motivation. The study is in its fourth year and the participants are undergraduates in their last year of the Software Engineering degree. During the four years period, all except two students were Millennials and since the lectures were taught in the computer lab, the number of students was relatively stable (29, 30, 30 and 29 respectively). The current students’ generation, often called Millennials or Generation Y has some distinct traits. They are curious, but with a very short attention span. They are highly competitive with a strong desire to succeed but at times look for various shortcuts. They are technology savvy and heavily rely on their social friend with whom they share many aspects of their lives. The study's main aim that stems from Maslow's motivational theory was to use the Millennials’ “built-in” competitiveness to increase their motivation. The course web site served as a mini-social network where students could compare their performance to that of their peers. Furthermore, a simple Excel graph provided detailed information and each student could compare his/her performance to the class average. In the first year, the class grade average was 77. In the second year, the new tool was implemented and as a result the class grade average increased by 8 points. For evaluating the results obtained, in the third year, the class reverted to the “standard” structure without the grade comparison tool and the class average reduced to 76. In the last year the tool was put to use once again and the grades’ average increased as well to 86. The results obtained were in line with the reflections obtained from the students, which in general were in favor of a tool the in addition to the personal feedback, provides information on how they are doing compared to the group. The paper concludes with a discussion on the results and future follow-up directions.

Keywords:

Millennials, Motivation enhancement, Individual and unique assignments.