Effects of the world robot Olympiad on the students who participate: a qualitative study

Educational robots have been widely used in STEM education because they are operable and programmable. Robotics competitions for primary- and secondary-school students are becoming increasingly popular. The World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is an international robotics competition; each group of participants builds a robot with LEGO based on a challenge proposed by the WRO. In this study, the researchers interviewed 47 participants (19 parents, 17 students, and 11 coaches), and analysed interview data using NVivo 11.0 to explore the effect of the WRO from three perspectives. Overall, the experience of the WRO had a positive impact on students’ capability enhancement, emotional engagement, and school learning, such as through improving their communication, teamwork, thinking, and problem-solving skills, as well as their self-confidence and robot knowledge. However, the three groups had different priorities based on their participation. The students paid more attention to their own development in the competition and cooperation with the team. Parents focused more on the comprehensive development of students and impact of the competition on their school learning and future. The coaches attached greater importance to communication among team members, which is mainly focused on emotional engagement and capability enhancement. These findings have numerous implications for robotics education.