An Engineering Learning Community To Promote Retention And Graduation Of At-Risk Engineering Students

Abstract

Retention and graduation rates for engineering disciplines are significantly lower than desired, and research literature offers many possible causes. Engineering learning communities provide the opportunity to study relationships among specific causes and to develop and evaluate activities designed to lessen their impact. This paper details an engineering learning community created to combat three common threats to academic success of engineering students: financial difficulties, math deficiencies, and the lack of a supportive engineering culture. The project tracks participants in the learning community from first year through graduation to assess the effectiveness of its activities in improving retention and graduation rates. Scholarships were made available to address the financial difficulties; tutors, mentors, study groups, and a “freshman-to-sophomore bridge” summer program were provided to address math deficiencies; cohort engineering courses, active learning techniques, required group meetings, required group study sessions, dedicated study space, and dedicated faculty advisors were used to promote a sense of community. Quantitative retention and graduation rates for the cohort are compared to other engineering groups at the same institution. Qualitative results collected via student surveys and interviews, and lessons learned by project administrators are also presented. Retention and graduation rates of the cohort are better than those of comparable groups at the same institution. Graduation rates based upon freshman math placement are also higher than comparable groups.

Intrinsic Motivation and 21st-Century Skills in an Undergraduate Engineering Project: The Formula Student Project

“…Meeting these psychological needs appears to be essential for optimal functioning of the natural tendency for growth and integration, as well as for constructive social development and personal well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000b). Moreover, recent studies suggest that a sense of belonging to the engineering community and social integration (both peer-to-peer and student-to-faculty) improve student retention, which is a big concern in the engineering education community (Butterfield & Branch, 2016;Marra, Chia-Lin, Bogue & Pytel, 2015;Marra, Rodgers, Shen & Bogue, 2012;Ricks et al, 2014;Tuchscherer, Gray & Gray, 2017).…”

Understanding Diverse and Atypical Engineering Students: Lessons Learned From Community College Transfer Scholarship Recipients

“…Corroborating the findings of Ricks et al 5 , learning communities have been commonly identified as a strategy to provide tools for these populations 2,7,8,9,10 . Coston et al 10 determined that students "solved problems, studied together, shared texts and called each other for support in many areas of their lives", and thus managed to overcome multiple "stressors" that effect the success of underrepresented students in transferring from a two-year community college and subsequently completing a four-year degree.…”

“…Increasing the numbers of successfully graduating minority students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) is known to be achieved by intentional strategies to recruit students to and retain students at community colleges: emphasizing dual credit classes in high school, providing opportunity for career related experiences and providing community-related support 4 . Other research showed that financial difficulties and math deficiencies, in addition to a lack of belonging to the engineering communities, were barriers to success 5 . Similarly, Soria 6 determined that socioeconomically disadvantaged students struggled more with integration on campus compared to their middle and upper class peers.…”

“…Similarly, Soria 6 determined that socioeconomically disadvantaged students struggled more with integration on campus compared to their middle and upper class peers. However, Ricks et al 5 found that learning communities can address each of these obstacles.…”

Board 40: An S-STEM Project for Improving Undergraduate Engineering Education

“…Since the inception of S-STEM program, universities and colleges across the country have received support from this program through a competitive process [4][5][6][7][8] . The literature shows that the S-STEM program has generated positive impacts in undergraduate STEM education [4][5][6][7][8] . For example, Kalevitch et al created a Living-Learning Cohort model for the S-STEM students at their university 6 .…”