Assessing the Impact of Engagement and Real-Time Feedback in a Mobile Behavior Change Intervention for Supporting Critical Thinking in Engineering Research Projects

Digital behavior change interventions (DBCIs) provide customized advice, ongoing support, and Web- and mobile-based platforms for learners who want to change their undesirable behaviors. DBCIs have been successful in the past for delivering interventions that support sustained changes to health behaviors, such as disease prevention and health promotion. During research tasks, university students can require interventions associated with critical thinking skills and behaviors. By using a DBCI, educators can assist students with improving their learning skills in research projects. This study aims to understand student interactions and engagement with mobile-based DBCIs with the objective of improving their critical thinking skills. An experimental group was used to explore the effects of students’ interactions with an engaging mobile-based DBCI with real-time feedback and it was designed using the LifeGuide Toolbox platform, which supports their critical thinking skills over a period of two months while they conduct a research project. A comparison between formative expert assessments and self-reported evaluation was also performed. This experiment reveals that using a DBCI to encourage critical thinking skills within a research project context can significantly improve engagement with intervention components, as well as recommend areas that require further exploration where specific critical thinking skills and digital interventions components are the most promising.