Retention of Undergraduate
Engineering Students: Extending
Research Into Practice
Susan Staffin Metz, Co-PI
Stevens Institute of Technology
PI: Suzanne G. Brainard, Ph.D.
Research Director: Elizabeth Litzler
Research Assistant: Stephanie Jaros
ASEE Conference June 2010
Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Final Report to PACE Schools
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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 Interaction
Develop 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 Curriculum
Integrate 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% nonURM are involved in student professional societies
 43% of women involved with WIE, 34% of underrepresented 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
.
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
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.
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
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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
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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
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How are ENGAGE teams supported?
• Strategy Implementation Workshop
• Mini-grants ($12,000)
• Technical Assistance (ENGAGE staff &
•
•
consultants)
www.EngageEngineering.org
Evaluation
www.EngageEngineering.org
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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
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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)
www.EngageEngineering.org
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