There is a critical need for more students with engineering and computer science majors to enter
into, persist in, and graduate from four-year postsecondary institutions. Increasing the diversity
of the workforce by inclusive practices in engineering and science is also a profound identified
need. According to national statistics, the largest groups of underrepresented minority students in
engineering and science attend U.S. public higher education institutions. Most often, a large
proportion of these students come to colleges and universities with unique challenges and needs,
and are more likely to be first in their family to attend college. In response to these needs,
engineering education researchers and practitioners have developed, implemented and assessed
interventions to provide support and help students succeed in college, particularly in their first
year. These interventions typically target relatively small cohorts of students and can be managed
by a small number of faculty and staff. In this paper, we report on “work in progress” research in
a large-scale, first-year engineering and computer science intervention program at a public,
comprehensive university using multivariate comparative statistical approaches.
Large-scale intervention programs are especially relevant to minority serving institutions that
prepare growing numbers of students who are first in their family to attend college and who are
also under-resourced, financially. These students most often encounter academic difficulties and
come to higher education with challenging experiences and backgrounds. Our studied first-year
intervention program, first piloted in 2015, is now in its 5th year of implementation. Its
intervention components include: (a) first-year block schedules, (b) project-based introductory
engineering and computer science courses, (c) an introduction to mechanics course, which
provides students with the foundation needed to succeed in a traditional physics sequence, and
(d) peer-led supplemental instruction workshops for calculus, physics and chemistry courses.
This intervention study responds to three research questions: (1) What role does the first-year
intervention’s components play in students’ persistence in engineering and computer science
majors across undergraduate program years? (2) What role do particular pedagogical and cocurricular
support structures play in students’ successes? And (3) What role do various student
socio-demographic and experiential factors play in the effectiveness of first-year interventions?
To address these research questions and therefore determine the formative impact of the firstyear
engineering and computer science program on which we are conducting research, we have
collected diverse student data including grade point averages, concept inventory scores, and data
from a multi-dimensional questionnaire that measures students’ use of support practices across
their four to five years in their degree program, and diverse background information necessary to
determine the impact of such factors on students’ persistence to degree. Background data
includes students’ experiences prior to enrolling in college, their socio-demographic
characteristics, and their college social capital throughout their higher education experience. For
this research, we compared students who were enrolled in the first-year intervention program to
those who were not enrolled in the first-year intervention. We have engaged in cross-sectional
2
data collection from students’ freshman through senior years and employed multivariate
statistical analytical techniques on the collected student data.
Results of these analyses were interesting and diverse. Generally, in terms of backgrounds, our
research indicates that students’ parental education is positively related to their success in
engineering and computer science across program years. Likewise, longitudinally (across
program years), students’ college social capital predicted their academic success and persistence
to degree. With regard to the study’s comparative research of the first-year intervention, our
results indicate that students who were enrolled in the first-year intervention program as
freshmen continued to use more support practices to assist them in academic success across their
degree matriculation compared to students who were not in the first-year program. This suggests
that the students continued to recognize the value of such supports as a consequence of having
supports required as first-year students. In terms of students’ understanding of scientific or
engineering-focused concepts, we found significant impact resulting from student support
practices that were academically focused. We also found that enrolling in the first-year
intervention was a significant predictor of the time that students spent preparing for classes and
ultimately their grade point average, especially in STEM subjects across students’ years in
college. In summary, we found that the studied first-year intervention program has longitudinal,
positive impacts on students’ success as they navigate through their undergraduate experiences
toward engineering and computer science degrees.
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Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Large-Scale Interventions in a First-Year Experience Program
In this Work-in-Progress paper, we report on the challenges and successes of a large-scale First-
Year Engineering and Computer Science Program at an urban comprehensive university, using
quantitative and qualitative assessment results. Large-scale intervention programs are especially
relevant to comprehensive minority serving institutions (MSIs) that serve a high percentage of
first-generation college students who often face academic and socioeconomic barriers. Our
program was piloted in 2015 with 30 engineering students, currently enrolls 60 engineering and
computer science students, and is expected to grow to over 200 students by Fall 2020. The firstyear
program interventions include: (i) block schedules for each cohort in the first year; (ii)
redesigned project-based introduction to engineering and introduction to computer science
courses; (iii) an introduction to mechanics course, which provides students with the foundation
needed to succeed in the traditional physics sequence; and (iv) peer-led supplemental instruction
(SI) workshops for Calculus, Physics and Chemistry. A faculty mentorship program was
implemented to provide additional support to students, but was phased out after the first year.
Challenges encountered in the process of expanding the program include administrative, such as
scheduling and training faculty and SI leaders; barriers to improvement of math and science
instruction; and more holistic concerns such as creating a sense of community and identity for
the program. Quantitative data on academic performance includes metrics such as STEM GPA
and persistence, along with the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) for physics. Qualitative
assessments of the program have used student and instructor surveys, focus groups, and
individual interviews to measure relationships among factors associated with college student
support and to extract student perspectives on what works best for them. Four years of data tell a
mixed story, in which the qualitative effect of the interventions on student confidence and
identity is strong, while academic performance is not yet significantly different than that of
comparison groups. One of the most significant results of the program is the development of a
FYrE Professional Learning Community which includes faculty (both tenure-track and adjunct),
department chairs, staff, and administrators from across the campus.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1727054
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10100253
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ASEE Annual Conference proceedings
- ISSN:
- 1524-4644
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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