Retention of Undergraduate Engineering Students: Extending

Research Into Practice

Susan Staffin Metz, Co-PIStevens Institute of Technology

PI: Suzanne G. Brainard, Ph.D.Research Director: Elizabeth LitzlerResearch Assistant: Stephanie Jaros

ASEE Conference June 2010 Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Final Report to PACE Schools Statistically significant findings General trends Interview results Each survey question responses disaggregated

by gender & by race/ethnicity. Aggregated comparison data from three

schools for anonymized benchmarking. Research based recommendations

Categories of Recommendations

Increase and Improve Faculty-Student Interaction

Improve/Enhance Curriculum

Strengthen Student Engagement Engineering study Knowledge of engineering careers

Faculty Student Interaction Results

19% students participate in mentoring programs

17% of women were unfairly singled out in class because of their gender

22% of women heard faculty express gender stereotypes

17% of women are never or rarely comfortable asking questions in class

Faculty-Student Recommendations

Increase and Improve Faculty Student InteractionDevelop mentoring programs (17)Educate about stereotypes (11)Encourage students to ask for help

(11)Facilitate increased student

engagement (10)

Curriculum Results

Interviewees were enthusiastic about hands-on, real life problem solving activities

27% of students can think of other majors they would like better than engineering

38% of students usually or all the time felt overwhelmed by the amount of homework

Curriculum Recommendations

Improve /Enhance CurriculumIntegrate relevant applications (14)Provide greater flexibility in curriculum (5)

Student Engagement Results

59% of students feel like they usually or all the time are part of an engineering community

56% of females, 28% of males; 48% URM, 39% non-URM are involved in student professional societies

43% of women involved with WIE, 34% of under-represented minorities involved with MEP

Interviewees had high praise for the value of engineering-related work experiences

Student Engagement Recommendations

Strengthen student engagement in engineering study and knowledge of engineering careers

Encourage participation in professional societies and clubs (9)

Facilitate communities for women and URMs(5)

Increase opportunities for internships, co-ops, REU’s (5)

Next Steps

Work with schools and follow up on progress toward implementing PACE recommendations

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Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

What is ENGAGE?• NSF GSE Extension Service Project

Modeled after the Cooperative Extension Services of Land Grant Universities

Extending a successful product or strategy to a community who will benefit from the strategy

• Identify research based strategies that improve retention of engineering undergraduates, take it off the shelf and put it into action.

• 30 engineering schools in five years

www.EngageEngineering.org 12

Creating a Culture for Scholarly and Systematic Innovation in Engineering Education (ASEE 2009)

• The most effective way to improve persistence is to improve the quality of the engineering learning experience.

• A primary culprit in the attrition of students from engineering is students’ perception of a learning environment that is often unmotivating and unwelcoming. The environment created by faculty affects students’ performance and persistence.

www.EngageEngineering.org 13

2010 ENGAGE Schools

• Kettering University• Purdue University• Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology• Stevens Institute of Technology• The University of Texas at Austin• The Ohio State University• University of Louisville• University of Maryland• University of South Carolina• Virginia Tech

NOTE: Schools in RED participate in PACE and ENGAGE

www.EngageEngineering.org 14

What is the goal of ENGAGE?

• The overarching goal of ENGAGE is to increase the capacity of engineering schools to retain undergraduate students by facilitating the implementation of three research-based strategies to improve student day-to-day classroom and educational experience.

• Focus: Improve retention of 1st and 2nd year engineering students, particularly women.

www.EngageEngineering.org 15

How are ENGAGE teams supported?

• Strategy Implementation Workshop

• Mini-grants ($12,000)

• Technical Assistance (ENGAGE staff & consultants)

• www.EngageEngineering.org

• Evaluation

www.EngageEngineering.org 16

What strategies is ENGAGE extending?

• Improve Spatial Visualization Skills (among 1st year students with weak skills)

• Integrate Everyday Examples (in 1st and 2nd year engineering courses)

• Improve and increase level of Faculty-Student Interaction (among 1st & 2nd year engineering students)

www.EngageEngineering.org 17

PACE Supports and Informs ENGAGE Research-Based Strategies

Recommendations

Increase and improve faculty-student interaction•Develop formal faculty-student mentoring programs (17 schools)

•Encourage students to ask for help – faculty approachability (11)••Facilitate increased student engagement (through student-faculty interaction),particularly in the first two years (10) Improve /Enhance Curriculum •Integrate everyday examples/relevant applications in the curriculum (14)