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Volume 8,Issue 8

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10 September 2026

Exploration on the Construction of Professional Elective Courses Based on Undergraduates’ Course-Selection Motivations: A Case Study of Oil and Gas Resource Evaluation

Xiaomei Zhang1 ,  Hao Chen1*
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1 School of Geology and Mining Engineering, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830047, Xinjiang, China
erd 2026 , 8(8), 127–133; https://doi.org/10.26689/erd.v8i8.15298
© 2026 by the Author(s). Licensee: Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty Ltd, Australia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Professional elective courses allow students to freely choose courses based on their interests, career plans, or academic preferences, significantly stimulating their learning motivation and enhancing classroom participation. However, some students select courses merely to accumulate credits, follow their peers’ choices, or be lured by “popular courses,” which in turn undermines the cultivation of their core professional competencies. The results of the questionnaire indicate that students have diverse motivations for course selection. Further statistical analysis reveals that externally driven and goal-oriented motivations account for a high proportion, while purely interest-driven motivation is relatively low. Moreover, different motivations significantly affect classroom participation and engagement levels.

Keywords
Professional elective courses
Course-selection motivations
Course construction
Funding
Research and Reform Project of Postgraduate Education and Teaching in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XJ2026GY02); Tianchi Youth Doctor Program of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
References

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[5]   Liu G, Song Z, Chen D, et al., 2021, Construction of Curriculum Ideology and Politics System for Petroleum Geology. Education Teaching Forum, 2021(9): 51–54.

[6]   Wang S, Yue G, 2018, Analysis on Cultivating Students’ Practical Competency for Engineering Education Professional Accreditation. Theory and Practice of Education, 2018(3): 18–19.

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Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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