Analysis of instructional factors influencing project-based learning outcomes in university liberal arts courses: focusing on the moderating effects of emotional intelligence

Objectives Establishing team satisfaction, task authenticity, the quality of instructor feedback, task burden, and the appropriateness of assessment as instructional factors for project-based learning in university liberal arts courses, this study investigated the moderating effects of emotional intelligence on the relationship between each instructional factor and perceived team achievement. Methods After conducting a pre-survey to measure emotional intelligence among 72 students enrolled in a liberal arts course, a six-week project-based learning was implemented. Following the conclusion of the project-based learning, a post-survey was conducted to measure the quality of five instructional factors and team achievement. Initially, independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA were conducted to examine whether there were dif-ferences in the measured variable values based on participants' gender, grade, and major. Subsequently, using Process Macro v4.20 and Model 1, the relationship between project-based learning instructional factors and team achievement was analyzed, as well as the moderating effects of emotional intelligence. Results The relationship between team satisfaction and team achievement as well as the appropriateness of as-sessment and team achievement, was found to be significantly moderated by emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence was revealed to be particularly effective in enhancing team achievement when team satisfaction and the appropriateness of assessment were relatively low. Conclusions To enhance the success of project-based learning in university liberal arts courses, it is evident that, in addition to emotional intelligence, consideration must be given to all six instructional factors when designing and implementing the course. Attention should be directed towards devising strategies to enhance emotional in-telligence, especially when team satisfaction and assessment appropriateness are not ensured.