Mood States as a Key Factor in Assessing Student Learning in Project Management Teaching

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7160/eriesj.2025.180202

Keywords:

project management, Profile of Mood States, Scrum, serious management game, teaching methods

Abstract

Hands-on experience is an essential part of project management education. We researched to determine whether our practical seminars organized as part of an undergraduate project management course provide the expected learning experience consistent with current project management practice. We organized two practical seminars for students in four study groups that utilized serious management games. The seminars focused on traditional and agile project management, emphasizing the differences in teamwork and emotional states of the participants between both approaches. We used the Profile of Mood States psychological method to evaluate the total mood changes of eligible participants (n = 49). We found that respondents' total mood and fatigue have improved significantly during practical seminars, confirming that serious management games have a positive effect on student learning and experience. We observed no significant difference in total mood improvement between traditional and agile seminars. We learned that the vigor of the participants has increased only for the agile seminars. This outcome is consistent with actual research and empirical experience in the field. The study results will be used to improve the quality of practical seminars next year.

References

Azanha, A., Argoud, A. R. T. T., Camargo Junior, J. B. D. and Antoniolli, P. D. (2017) ‘Agile project management with Scrum: A case study of a Brazilian pharmaceutical company IT project’, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 121–142. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-06-2016-0054

Barcelos Bica, D. A. and Gouvea da Silva, C. A. (2020) ‘Learning Process of Agile Scrum Methodology With Lego Blocks in Interactive Academic Games: Viewpoint of Students’, Ieee Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologias Del Aprendizaje-IEEE RITA, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 95–104. https://doi.org/10.1109/RITA.2020.2987721

Beck, K., Beedle, M., van Bennekum, A., Cockburn, A., Cunningham, W., Fowler, M., et al. (2001) ‘Manifesto for Agile Software Development’. Retrieved from https://agilemanifesto.org/

Berger, B. G. and Motl, R. W. (2000) ‘Exercise and mood: A selective review and synthesis of research employing the profile of mood states’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 69–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200008404214

Bianchi, M., Marzi, G. and Guerini, M. (2020) ‘Agile, Stage-Gate and their combination: Exploring how they relate to performance in software development’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 110, pp. 538–553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.05.003

Boyle, G. J., Helmes, E., Matthews, G. and Izard, C. E. (2015) ‘Measures of Affect Dimensions’, in Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs, Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

Chennaoui, M., Bougard, C., Drogou, C., Langrume, C., Miller, C., Gomez-Merino, D. and Vergnoux, F. (2016) ‘Stress biomarkers, mood states, and sleep during a major competition: “Success” and “failure” athlete’s profile of high-level swimmers’, Frontiers in Physiology, Vol. 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2016.00094

Chow, T. and Cao, D.-B. (2008) ‘A survey study of critical success factors in agile software projects’, Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 81, No. 6, pp. 961–971. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2007.08.020

Ciric, D., Lalic, B., Gracanin, D., Tasic, N., Delic, M. and Medic, N. (2019) ‘Agile vs. Traditional Approach in Project Management: Strategies, Challenges and Reasons to Introduce Agile’, Procedia Manufacturing, Vol. 39, pp. 1407–1414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2020.01.314

De Gloria, A., Bellotti, F. and Berta, R. (2014) ‘Serious Games for education and training’, International Journal of Serious Games, Vol. 1, No. 1. https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v1i1.11

Digital.ai (2024) ‘17th State of Agile Report: Analyst reports’, Retrieved from https://digital.ai/resource-center/analyst-reports/state-of-agile-report/

Djaouti, D., Alvarez, J. and Jessel, J.-P. (2011) ‘Classifying Serious Games: The G/P/S Model’, in Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games, Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Guerrero-Calvache, M. and Hernández, G. (2023) ‘Team Productivity Factors in Agile Software Development: An Exploratory Survey with Practitioners’, in Applied Informatics, pp. 261–276, Switzerland: Springer Nature.

Havazík, O. and Pavlíčková, P. (2020) ‘Using a simulation game in the education of an agile approach’, Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science (ERIE 2020), Prague: Czech Republic, pp. 76–82.

Heikura, E. E., Aunola, K., Tolvanen, A., Ryba, T. V. and Selänne, H. (2023) ‘Student-athletes’ mood state profiles: the role of sports, sex, and performance level in sports and in school’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Vol. 35, No. 5, pp. 836–853. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2022.2158250

Hellström, M. M., Jaccard, D. and Bonnier, K. E. (2023) ‘Systematic review on the use of serious games in project management education’, International Journal of Serious Games, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 3–24. https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v10i2.630

Heuchert, J. P. and McNair, D. M. (2012) Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition, PsycTESTS Dataset, American Psychological Association (APA). Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1037/t05057-000

Highsmith, J. A. (2010) Agile project management, 2nd Ed., Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Addison-Wesley.

Hobbs, B. and Petit, Y. (2017) ‘Agile Methods on Large Projects in Large Organizations’, Project Management Journal, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/875697281704800301

Hron, M. and Obwegeser, N. (2022) ‘Why and how is Scrum being adapted in practice: A systematic review’, Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 183, p. 111110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2021.111110

Jones, M. T., Matthews, T. D., Murray, M., Van Raalte, J. and Jensen, B. E. (2010) ‘Psychological correlates of performance in female athletes during a 12-week off-season strength and conditioning program’, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 619–628. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181cc23c3

Kadenic, M. D., Koumaditis, K. and Junker-Jensen, L. (2023) ‘Mastering Scrum with a focus on team maturity and key components of Scrum’, Information and Software Technology, Vol. 153, p. 107079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107079

Kesti, M., Ylitalo, A.-I. and Vakkala, H. (2022) ‘Management Game: Gamifying Leadership Learning’, in Research Anthology on Human Resource Practices for the Modern Workforce, Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Liker, J. K. and Ross, K. (2016) The Toyota Way to Service Excellence: Lean Transformation in Service Organizations, New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Likert, R. (1932) ‘A technique for the measurement of attitudes.’, Archives of Psychology, Vol. 22, No. 140, pp. 55.

Mahadevan, L., Kettinger, W. J. and Meservy, T. O. (2015) ‘Running on Hybrid: Control Changes when Introducing an Agile Methodology in a Traditional “Waterfall” System Development Environment’, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Vol. 36, pp. 77–103. https://doi.org/10.17705/1cais.03605

Malik, M., Sarwar, S. and Orr, S. (2021) ‘Agile practices and performance: Examining the role of psychological empowerment’, International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 10–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2020.09.002

Maynard, M. T., Gilson, L. L. and Mathieu, J. E. (2012) ‘Empowerment—Fad or Fab? A Multilevel Review of the Past Two Decades of Research’, Journal of Management, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 1231–1281. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206312438773

McNair, D. M., Lorr, M. and Droppleman, L. F. (1971) Manual for the Profile of Mood States, San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Services.

Miller, G. and Vaca Núnez, V. (2022) ‘The Project Win Game™: A Serious Game for Project Management Simulation’, European Conference on Games Based Learning, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 358–367. https://doi.org/10.34190/ecgbl.16.1.660

Niewöhner, N., Asmar, L., Wortmann, F., Röltgen, D., Kühn, A. and Dumitrescu, R. (2019) ‘Design fields of agile innovation management in small and medium sized enterprises’, Procedia CIRP, Vol. 84, pp. 826–831. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2019.04.295

Paasivaara, M., Heikkilä, V., Lassenius, C. and Toivola, T. (2014) ‘Teaching students Scrum using LEGO blocks’, in Companion Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Software Engineering, New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2591062.2591169

Paasivaara, M. and Lassenius, C. (2014) ‘Communities of practice in a large distributed agile software development organization – Case Ericsson’, Information and Software Technology, Vol. 56, No. 12, pp. 1556–1577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2014.06.008

PMI (2021) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Seventh Edition and The Standard for Project Management (ENGLISH), 7th Ed., Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

PRINCE2 7 (2023) Managing Successful Projects, 7th Edition, Greece: PeopleCert.

Roshan, R. and Santhosh, A. (2021) ‘Adoption of agile methodology for improving IT project performance’, Serbian Journal of Management, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 301–320. https://doi.org/10.5937/sjm16-26854

Rumeser, D. and Emsley, M. (2019) ‘Lessons learned from implementing project management games’, International Journal of Serious Games, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 71–92. https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v6i1.130

Sahli, H., Selmi, O., Zghibi, M., Hill, L., Rosemann, T., Knechtle, B. and Clemente, F. M. (2020) ‘Effect of the verbal encouragement on psychophysiological and affective responses during small-sided games’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 17, No. 23, pp. 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238884

Salido O., M. G., Borrego, G., Palacio Cinco, R. R. and Rodríguez, L.-F. (2023) ‘Agile software engineers’ affective states, their performance and software quality: A systematic mapping review’, Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 204, p. 111800. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2023.111800

Shacham, S. (1983) ‘A Shortened Version of the Profile of Mood States’, Journal of Personality Assessment, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 305–306. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4703_14

Schwaber, K. and Sutherland, J. (2012) ‘The Scrum Guide′. Retrieved from https://www.scrum.org/resources/scrum-guide (Accessed: 18 March 2025).

Shore, J. (2021) The art of agile development, 2nd Edition, Sebastopoval, CA: O`Reilly Media.

Stuchlíková, I., Man, F. and Hagtvet, K. (2005) ‘Dotazník k měření afektivních stavů: Konfirmační faktorová analýza krátké české verze’, Československá Psychologie, Vol. 49, No. 5, pp. 459–469.

Sutherland, J. (2014) Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice in Half the Time, New York: Currency.

White, R. L., Babic, M. J., Parker, P. D., Lubans, D. R., Astell-Burt, T. and Lonsdale, C. (2017) ‘Domain-Specific Physical Activity and Mental Health: A Meta-analysis’, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol. 52, No. 5, pp. 653–666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.12.008

Wilcoxon, F. (1945) ‘Individual Comparisons by Ranking Methods’, Biometrics Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 6, pp. 80. https://doi.org/10.2307/3001968

Additional Files

Published

2025-06-30

How to Cite

Kunhart, J. and Bartoška, J. (2025) ’Mood States as a Key Factor in Assessing Student Learning in Project Management Teaching’, Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 78–90. https://doi.org/10.7160/eriesj.2025.180202

Issue

Section

Research Paper