Measuring Student Academic Motivation Toward Process Safety Decision Making within a Virtual Digital Environment

In recent years our research team has developed an engaging digital environment or “digital game” we call Contents Under Pressure. In the game students are able to make decisions, many related to process safety, that arise when working as a practicing chemical engineer in industry. This immersive approach is a valuable strategy toward evaluating an individual’s decision making ability and thought processes related to process safety and engineering ethics, where real-world incentives and disincentives are difficult or impossible to achieve in survey or classroom-type environments. A goal of this novel approach toward process safety education is to improve upon student academic motivation to learn process safety content, which we plan on assessing using the MUSIC model developed by Dr. Brett Jones. Student academic motivation may differ based on student gender identity, ethnicity, and perception of being a “gamer”. The effect of these factors on student academic motivation as it pertains to interaction with Contents Under Pressure will be evaluated by the MUSIC model and presented in this work.