The United States veteran student cohort presents the potential to increase representation of underrepresented groups in engineering program across the country. Unfortunately, discontinued and dismissal rates among veteran students are significantly higher than traditional engineering student attrition. Additionally, there is a lack of data-driven research to understand and quantify retention of veteran students in engineering. The objective of this research is to increase veteran student retention by investigating associations between retention, social responsibility in the military and in engineering, and demographics.
Social responsibility is generally understood as acting to benefit society. When practicing engineering, it is the responsibility of engineers to evaluate the implications of their calculations and designs for society’s safety, welfare, and the environment. All military branches promote social responsibility through core values, putting the welfare of others before themselves and working for the greater good of society. There is a common theme between the core ideals of the military community and why many students select engineering to pursue after a successful military career. This work in progress paper will discuss the preliminary survey to measure social responsibility attitudes in veteran and first year students at Kansas State University. The developed survey was reviewed by an expert advisory panel of veterans prior to pilot testing with an identified group of veteran and first-year students. The research team anticipates launching the full survey next fall. The goal of this research is to determine if concepts of social responsibility positively influence veteran student retention. The results of this research will be used to design an intervention, likely in the first-year, which will increase veteran retention in engineering programs.
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Board 84: Associations Between Veteran and Non-veteran Student Perceptions of Social Responsibility
This research addresses the global initiative to increase diversity in the engineering work force. The military Veteran student population was identified as one of the most diverse student groups in engineering; however, discontinue and dismissal rates of Veteran students in engineering are significantly higher than traditional engineering students in the United States. These Veteran students hold identifiable traits that are different than traditional engineering students who are under the age of 24 and financially dependent on their parents. While great leaps have been made in engineering student retention, most has focused on these traditional students. This research seeks to fill this gap by specifically addressing the retention of Veteran students using the concept of social responsibility. Social responsibility is generally considered to be acting to benefit society. It is a common ideal promoted in the military (e.g., service before self in the U.S. Air Force fundamental and enduring values). It is also embodied in the engineer’s creed (i.e., engineers using their professional skills to improve human welfare) and revealed by the literature as a major factor that attracts many students from historically underrepresented groups into engineering. Therefore, the objective of this research is to explore the associations between Veteran student retention, social responsibility, and demographics. A survey instrument was developed based on a model for assessing first-year engineering student understanding of social responsibility. The survey was updated to include demographics specific to the Veteran student cohort (e.g., military branch, prior job attributes, and university transfer credits) and questions specifically linking military service and engineering. The survey was piloted, followed by a focus group to clarify survey questions; it was then revised and launched in October 2018 to all students who self-identify as Veterans and all first-year students in the college of engineering at a 4-year land grant institution. Approximately 48% of the Veteran student cohort and 52% of the first-year cohort responded to the survey. This paper will discuss the Veteran and first-year student perceptions of social responsibility in engineering based on results from the instrument. The results of this research will be used to design an intervention, likely in the first-year when most Veteran students discontinue or are dismissed, to increase Veteran retention in engineering programs.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1738145
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10230715
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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null (Ed.)Despite considerable gains made towards increasing students interest in STEM education, one specific population, Veterans in engineering, suffers from disproportionally high attrition. Social responsibility (SR) is one motivating factor for becoming an engineer and was identified as a successful intervention strategy to improve retention of first-year engineering students. SR is also a core value instilled by all branches of the U.S. military while actively serving. Therefore, the objective of this research study was to examine Veterans’ perceptions of SR as it related to engineering. For this study, a survey instrument was designed, piloted, revised, and launched for instrument validation and exploratory examination if a relationship between SR and Veteran students’ core beliefs existed. Results of this study showed that both Veteran and first-year non-Veteran students strongly value the tenants of SR. The results of this study indicate the potential for curriculum and policy changes to increase Veteran retention in engineering programs.more » « less
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POSTER. Presented at the Symposium (9/12/2019) Abstract: The Academy of Engineering Success (AcES) employs literature-based, best practices to support and retain underrepresented students in engineering through graduation with the ultimate goal of diversifying the engineering workforce. AcES was established in 2012 and has been supported via NSF S-STEM award number 1644119 since 2016. The 2016, 2017, and 2018 cohorts consist of 12, 20, and 22 students, respectively. Five S-STEM supported scholarships were awarded to the 2016 cohort, seven scholarships were awarded to students from the 2017 cohort, and six scholarships were awarded to students from the 2018 cohort. AcES students participate in a one-week summer bridge experience, a common fall semester course focused on professional development, and a common spring semester course emphasizing the role of engineers in societal development. Starting with the summer bridge experience, and continuing until graduation, students are immersed in curricular and co-curricular activities with the goals of fostering feelings of institutional inclusion and belonging in engineering, providing academic support and student success skills, and professional development. The aforementioned goals are achieved by providing (1) opportunities for faculty-student, student-student, and industry mentor-student interaction, (2) academic support, and student success education in areas such as time management and study skills, and (3) facilitated career and major exploration. Four research questions are being examined, (1) What is the relationship between participation in the AcES program and participants’ academic success?, (2) What aspects of the AcES program most significantly impact participants’ success in engineering, (3) How do AcES students seek to overcome challenges in studying engineering, and (4) What is the longitudinal impact of the AcES program in terms of motivation, perceptions, feelings of inclusion, outcome expectations of the participants and retention? Students enrolled in the AcES program participate in the GRIT, LAESE, and MSLQ surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews at the start and end of each fall semester and at the end of the spring semester. The surveys provide a measure of students’ GRIT, general self-efficacy, engineering self-efficacy, test anxiety, math outcome efficacy, intrinsic value of learning, inclusion, career expectations, and coping efficacy. Focus group and interview responses are analyzed in order to answer research questions 2, 3, and 4. Survey responses are analyzed to answer research question 4, and institutional data such as GPA is used to answer research question 1. An analysis of the 2017 AcES cohort survey responses produced a surprising result. When the responses of AcES students who retained were compared to the responses of AcES students who left engineering, those who left engineering had higher baseline values of GRIT, career expectations, engineering self-efficacy, and math outcome efficacy than those students who retained. A preliminary analysis of the 2016, 2017, and 2018 focus group and one-on-one interview responses indicates that the Engineering Learning Center, tutors, organized out of class experiences, first-year seminar, the AcES cohort, the AcES summer bridge, the AcES program, AcES Faculty/Staff, AcES guest lecturers, and FEP faculty/Staff are viewed as valuable by students and cited with contributing to their success in engineering. It is also evident that AcES students seek help from peers, seek help from tutors, use online resources, and attend office hours to overcome their challenges in studying engineering.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--32442
