Effects of Motivational and Volitional Messages on Attitudes toward Engineering: Comparing Text Messages with Animated Messages Delivered by a Pedagogical Agent

This study tested strategies incorporating change management, motivational, and volitional characteristics in order to facilitate positive attitudes toward engineering. In an introductory engineering course, the strategies were distributed via email to two groups: one received the strategies with an animated pedagogical agent (Agent-MVM) and the other received the strategies in a text-only format (Text-MVM). The effects of the strategies on attitudes were compared with the control group which received neither formats of the strategy message. Contrary to expectations, the results indicated that the attitudes of the Agent-MVM group were not significantly more positive than the Text-MVM group or the control group. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed along with implications and possibilities for future studies.