Abstract

With all of the detailed procedural and technical content students encounter in their IT project management education one would expect higher project success rates in industry. Yet, research has shown that these efforts have not resulted in significant project performance improvement (Sirisomboonsuk et al., 2018). To enhance project management education and training, traditional learning approaches have been augmented through gamification, scenario-based learning, action learning, among others (Sibona & Pourreza, 2018). To extend this body of knowledge we develop an emotional experience framework based upon Flow Theory (Csíkszentmihályi, 2008) to measure, classify, and pragmatically apply project management learning approaches. Specifically, we attempt to answer the following research questions: RQ1) Can individual project management learning situations elucidate emotional states, including valence, arousal, boredom, anxiety, and flow in various learning contexts? RQ2) How do these states influence project management learner performance? We attempt to answer these questions through an experiment consisting of three learning approaches, including: 1) a traditional learning scenario consisting of video content, 2) a competitive game using reinforcement structures, and 3) a simulation activity using plastic building blocks as an analog to project tasks. Moreover, all three approaches will include identical priming, review, and assessment activities. We expect that our findings will allow educators to more methodologically apply learning activities to improve IT Project Management learning outcomes.

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Invoking Emotional Experiences to Improve IT Project Management Learning

With all of the detailed procedural and technical content students encounter in their IT project management education one would expect higher project success rates in industry. Yet, research has shown that these efforts have not resulted in significant project performance improvement (Sirisomboonsuk et al., 2018). To enhance project management education and training, traditional learning approaches have been augmented through gamification, scenario-based learning, action learning, among others (Sibona & Pourreza, 2018). To extend this body of knowledge we develop an emotional experience framework based upon Flow Theory (Csíkszentmihályi, 2008) to measure, classify, and pragmatically apply project management learning approaches. Specifically, we attempt to answer the following research questions: RQ1) Can individual project management learning situations elucidate emotional states, including valence, arousal, boredom, anxiety, and flow in various learning contexts? RQ2) How do these states influence project management learner performance? We attempt to answer these questions through an experiment consisting of three learning approaches, including: 1) a traditional learning scenario consisting of video content, 2) a competitive game using reinforcement structures, and 3) a simulation activity using plastic building blocks as an analog to project tasks. Moreover, all three approaches will include identical priming, review, and assessment activities. We expect that our findings will allow educators to more methodologically apply learning activities to improve IT Project Management learning outcomes.