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This IUSE: Engaged Student Learning project will conduct a study of nontraditional students in engineering (NTSE) to better understand how to support their co-curricular activities so that they are better able to persist with engineering as a discipline. Nontraditional students (NTS) are increasing both as a proportion of undergraduates and in overall numbers. This is especially the case within engineering as people in the workforce return to complete their degrees or are looking to finish school on a part-time basis. Online offerings across higher education institutions has further accelerated this trend. However, there is little research into engineering students that possess characteristics associated with nontraditional students. Engineering as an educational enterprise has been designed to support a traditional four-year residential degree (e.g. group projects, study halls) and NTS are disadvantaged. Prior work has demonstrated better effectiveness for teaching and pedagogy if co-curricular activities are supported and if proper awareness and access to student support mechanisms are in place students are more likely to be successful. Therefore, we need to understand the efficacy of support structures for nontraditional characteristics. The need for this proposed work is critical within engineering as the discipline traditionally has a low persistence and retention rate and this is also the case for NTSE. This work is especially pertinent in the current climate where NTS are additionally burdened due to COVID-19 – there is less support in time of greater need. 

This research paper is a study of the support needs of nontraditional students in engineering (NTSE). Nontraditional students in engineering are one segment of the student body that has traditionally not been a part of the conversation in engineering education– those students who do not go through a typical four-year college degree largely at a residential campus. It is only by better understanding the range of issues that NTSE face that we will be able to design interventions and support systems that can assist them. Recent work in engineering education particularly argues that co-curricular support is a critical factor in student success as it effects curricular progress but there has been no work looking specifically at co-curricular support for NTSE and their retention and persistence. The population of NTSE is increasing across campuses as more students take on jobs to support their education and as those in the workforce return to complete their education. It is imperative that higher educational systems understand how to serve the needs of these students better. Although there are a range of ways in which nontraditional students (NTS) are defined, the NCES has proposed a comprehensive definition that includes enrollment criteria, financial and family status, and high school graduation status. Overall, the seven characteristics specifically associated with NTS are: (1) Delayed enrollment by a year or more after high school, (2) attended part-time, (3) having dependents, (4) being a single parent, (5) working full time while enrolled, (6) being financially independent from parents, and (7) did not receive a standard high school diploma. We ground our research in the Model of Co-Curricular Support (MCCS) which suggests it is the role of the institution to provide the necessary support for integration. If students are aware and have access to resources, which lead to their success, then they will integrate into the university environment at higher rates than those students who are not aware and have access to those resources. This research study focuses on answering one research question: How do NTSE engage with co-curricular supports as they progress through their degree programs? To answer this question, we recruited 11 NTSE with a range of nontraditional characteristics to complete prompted reflective journaling assignments five times throughout the Fall 2021 semester. Qualitative results showcase the nuanced lives of NTSE as they pursue their engineering degrees. In particular, results indicate students interact with faculty, classmates, and friends/peers the most, and only interact with advising when required. Students rarely reach out to larger student support for help or are involved with campus or other events happening. Classmate and friend/peer interactions are the most positive, while interactions with faculty had the largest negative outcomes. 

There remains a lack of research on professional engineering work practices [1]. This deficiency is troubling because engineering education is organized and reorganized based on claims and assumptions about what professional engineering work is or will be. Without well-researched and trustworthy representations of practice, it is questionable whether engineering educators can adequately prepare future engineers for workplace realities. Although it is important that the preparation of future engineers not be tied solely to the workforce, there is a significant “disconnect between engineers in practice and engineers in academe” [2, p. 18]. If educators want to prepare students for professional success – including by assuming roles as future leaders and change agents – concrete images of engineering work are critical resources for rethinking engineering education [1]. The need for such resources is even more urgent given ongoing changes to engineering work under the forces of globalization, new organizational configurations, and new technologies of communication, design, and production. More research is needed to document images that are often discounted by students and even faculty, i.e., portrayals of engineering practice that emphasize its non-technical and non-calculative sides, as well as its non-individual aspects [3-4]. The aim of this work-in-progress paper is to introduce an exploratory project that will test innovative approaches to data collection and analysis for rapidly generating new knowledge about engineering practice. Traditionally, engineering practices have primarily been studied using in-depth ethnographic field research, requiring researchers to embed themselves as participant observers in the workplace. Yet technical work increasingly involves open workspaces and geographically distributed teams, frequent changes in job roles and team composition, and many layers of digital abstraction and collaboration. It thus may not be feasible or optimal to perform on-site research for extended periods of time. The main aim of this paper is to introduce method innovations for conducting field research which can potentially generate higher quality data more efficiently. Before doing so, we briefly overview prior research on engineering practice. 

There remains a lack of research on professional engineering work practices [1]. This deficiency is troubling because engineering education is organized and reorganized based on claims and assumptions about what professional engineering work is or will be. Without well-researched and trustworthy representations of practice, it is questionable whether engineering educators can adequately prepare future engineers for workplace realities. Although it is important that the preparation of future engineers not be tied solely to the workforce, there is a significant “disconnect between engineers in practice and engineers in academe” [2, p. 18]. If educators want to prepare students for professional success – including by assuming roles as future leaders and change agents – concrete images of engineering work are critical resources for rethinking engineering education [1]. The need for such resources is even more urgent given ongoing changes to engineering work under the forces of globalization, new organizational configurations, and new technologies of communication, design, and production. More research is needed to document images that are often discounted by students and even faculty, i.e., portrayals of engineering practice that emphasize its non-technical and non-calculative sides, as well as its non-individual aspects [3-4]. The aim of this work-in-progress paper is to introduce an exploratory project that will test innovative approaches to data collection and analysis for rapidly generating new knowledge about engineering practice. Traditionally, engineering practices have primarily been studied using in-depth ethnographic field research, requiring researchers to embed themselves as participant observers in the workplace. Yet technical work increasingly involves open workspaces and geographically distributed teams, frequent changes in job roles and team composition, and many layers of digital abstraction and collaboration. It thus may not be feasible or optimal to perform on-site research for extended periods of time. The main aim of this paper is to introduce method innovations for conducting field research which can potentially generate higher quality data more efficiently. Before doing so, we briefly overview prior research on engineering practice.