Gender Differences in the Long-Term Impacts of Project-Based Learning

An externally-conducted alumni survey investigated long-term impacts of project-based learning (PBL) by studying 38 years of engineering graduates from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a technology-focused university featuring a project-based curriculum. Web-based, asynchronous interaction with a stratified sample of alumni informed survey development. A Likert scale survey explored 39 areas of professional and personal impact of PBL experiences. Impact areas included professional skills, world views, and personal impacts. For each of 39 impact areas of PBL that the survey explored, a higher percentage of females reported “much” or “very much” positive impact when compared to males. Mann-Whitney U tests revealed that the differences in distributions were statistically significant for 34 of the 39 impacts (p<.015). This paper presents and discusses detailed findings regarding gender differences in long-term impacts of PBL on engineering majors. The discussion is informed by findings from post-survey interviews with male and female alumni.