Impact of Integrating Mental Wellness and Personal Learning Reflections Into First-Year Undergraduate Engineering Courses

Paul, R.; Adeyinka, O Adebayo; Boyce, Melissa; Eldib, Ghada; Gaulin, Katie; Johnston, Kimberly; Kelba, Lauren; Lindsay, Brittany L.; Tormon, Rigel

doi:10.24908/pceea.vi0.14973

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Earlier papers [1,2] discuss the pilot project in detail and highlight the key components of the program, such as the implementation, formatting, etc. The previous programs [2] were delivered as a part of lecture during class time for about 15 minutes at the beginning of engineering course where short set of materials were presented followed by the reflection quiz. Those reflection quizzes were usually worth about 1% of students' grade and were due at the end of that week.…”

Section: -2022 Program Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the previous year (2020-2021), a major challenge was the virtual mode of delivery [2]. The primary challenge we had for 2021-2022 was delivering module contents in hybrid mode (where the students could choose to attend these sessions in-person in the classrooms or attend virtually over Zoom).…”

Section: Limitations and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students are asked to reflect on the module content based on their personal experience. The SSE firstyear modules have been very popular and well received, both from students and instructors [1,2]. The program was therefore continued in Fall 2021 and Winter 2022 where grading was based on the completion of self-reflections.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Learning from Learners: Wellness seminars and self-reflections for first-year engineering students to enhance their journey in engineering education

Pandey

Paul²,

Johnston³

et al. 2022

PCEEA

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First-year engineering can be an overwhelming experience for students, and it is important to have regular check-in points for students as they transition to post-secondary education. Beginning in 2019, the Schulich School of Engineering (SSE) at the University of Calgary implemented mental wellness and engineering attributes modules across the first-year engineering curriculum. These modules focused on students’ overall development to support their success in the diverse world of engineering. In this paper, we give an overview of the program implementation during 2021-2022 and recommendations for effective implementation of such series based on our experiences. We also briefly present a summary of the students’ self-reflections from the first two years of the program. At the end of each module, we ask students a few open-ended questions to reflect on their experiences based on the materials covered in the module. In addition to these responses from different modules, the final self-reflection, where the students are asked to reflect on their journey as a first-year engineering student, is of immense help in enhancing our understanding of students’ perspectives. Analysis and review of these reflections help mold our strategies for future programming to support student wellbeing and academic and professional development.

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Section: -2022 Program Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitations and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Learning from Learners: Wellness seminars and self-reflections for first-year engineering students to enhance their journey in engineering education

Pandey

Paul²,

Johnston³

et al. 2022

PCEEA

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“…Many studies have shown high levels of anxiety, mental health concerns and depression in engineering undergraduates (e.g. [1], [2], [3]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RealEngineering: Space – Designing the Community-Applied Space Engineering Program

Alsop

El-Shebiny²,

Newland³

2022

PCEEA

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Engineering education is still largely offered through traditional, content-heavy approaches, with key technical topics in individual courses separate from those that emphasize the practice of the engineering profession, resulting in fragmented student workloads. Traditional assessments do not accommodate students’ unique, diverse learning perspectives. These issues fail to recognize that engineering is above all else a community-of-practice, requiring practitioners to demonstrate innovation and resilience to address today’s complex challenges in sustainable ways. More recent programs adopt project-based pedagogies, that engage learners in engineering problems that affect their communities. This paper proposes taking the project focus further, with a structure that allows faculty and students to collaborate on real-world engineering work that is not just done for, but also with, the community, and with sustainability built in. Such an approach establishes an overarching connection between the “work” of an engineer and what it is to be a future engineer for society. The authors are developing a 4-year space engineering program proposal, where students from all years will collaborate to design, build, launch and operate a cubesat for, and with, the community as the full focus of their 4-year degree. A six-week pilot slice of the program took place in the summer of 2021 with 20 students from all undergraduate year groups collaborating on a community-focussed, sustainable small space-mission design activity to change power dynamics around water quality data in northern and indigenous Canadian communities. Students worked in organizational teams, with structured teambuilding and collaboration time, focussed working sessions from subject-matter-experts, microcredential learning and unstructured team time to advance their project. This culminated in a mission concept review with a team of expert, industry and community partners. This paper presents some of the key ideas that informed the program, and the tools used to frame the learning journey in an undergraduate engineering degree. The pilot demonstrated students’ readiness to take on complex, unstructured challenges and organize themselves, and the potential to offer undergraduate learning spaces that have a very different connection to community and global issues.

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“…In its simplest form, the integration of MHW and personal learning reflections in first-year engineering courses may have positive effects. Research literature supports that such practices have been received positively by both engineering undergraduates and their faculty [29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Institutional Role in the Mental Health and Well-being of Undergraduate Engineering Students: Student and Faculty Perspectives

Asghar,

Minichiello,

Iqbal

2023 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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BackgroundMental Health and Wellbeing (MHW) has been attributed to student success in higher education. While the role of institutions of higher education in the MHW of students is generally known, to the knowledge of authors, research about how students and their faculty perceive this role in undergraduate engineering education contexts is limited. PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the institution (i.e., administration and faculty) in providing students with an overall positive experience in the college of engineering as perceived by students and their faculty. Design/MethodThis study reports on the analysis of the semi-structured interview data collected from undergraduate engineering students, and their faculty in the college of engineering at a Western land grant institution of higher education. As part of a larger project related to the MHW of undergraduate engineering students, these data were collected in response to a specific question about the institution's role in providing an overall positive student experience. Thematic Analysis of data collected from 13 interview participants (8 students and 5 faculty members) was conducted. FindingsThematic analysis resulted in three themes from student interviews addressing the need for 1) improvement in first-year student experiences, 2) delivering needed information about students' MHW and academics, and 3) improvement in the hands-on experiences of students. Resultant four themes from faculty interviews addressed: 1) effective faculty-student communication, 2) providing opportunities to increase positive academic and social experiences, 3) cognizance of students' situation, and 4) dissemination of MHWrelated information. ConclusionsInstitutions of higher education play a vital role in the overall positive experiences of engineering undergraduates to support their MHW. While engineering undergraduates and their faculty agree on the need for improved dissemination of information to students, the faculty focus is on MHW-related information and students' desire for information more broadly including information relating to courses and hands-on experiences. Both agree that institutions need to be aware of the MHW need of students.

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Impact of Integrating Mental Wellness and Personal Learning Reflections Into First-Year Undergraduate Engineering Courses

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

Learning from Learners: Wellness seminars and self-reflections for first-year engineering students to enhance their journey in engineering education

Learning from Learners: Wellness seminars and self-reflections for first-year engineering students to enhance their journey in engineering education

RealEngineering: Space – Designing the Community-Applied Space Engineering Program

Institutional Role in the Mental Health and Well-being of Undergraduate Engineering Students: Student and Faculty Perspectives

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