We evaluated the pilot semester of a freshman introduction to engineering course in order to provide an understanding of the students' experience in the course and identify aspects of this experience that could lead to improved student retention in engineering. The course concentrates on having students work in teams to identify customer needs, find solutions, and design and build a final product. We used qualitative research methods for data collection and analysis that included interviewing students using a set of open-ended questions, thus allowing them to introduce issues and describe their experiences. Our analysis indicated that students experienced engineering in a supportive, team-oriented environment that provided a context for making informed career decisions. The students' experiences indicate that courses such as this one can help students face the challenges they encounter in beginning their engineering education.
I. INTRODUCTIONIndicators of student success in engineering have been limited largely to quantitative factors such as retention data and trends in engineering degree production. These figures, though crucial, are effects and do not by themselves carry any information about the causes that produced them. In particular, the figures do not reveal the internal processes or characteristics of courses that may lead to student success or failure in engineering. We feel that in order to obtain useable information about the internal processes and characteristics of courses, extensive work with students must be carried out.In this article we present the results of an evaluation of the fall 1994 pilot offering of a freshman introduction to engineering course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The course, Engineering Professional Development (EPD) 160, concentrates on having students work in teams to identify the needs of a real customer, find solutions, and design and build a final product. We document the students' experiences and how they interpret the course. Our study is student-centered, focusing on their descriptions and perceptions of the course.
A. The Retention IssueMany reports have addressed the high attrition rate of students who enter college as engineering majors, pointing out that less than half of these students persist in their engineering curriculum until graduation. Since engineering attracts relatively few recruits from other fields, it is heavily dependent on retaining the students who begin in engineering.What factors explain this high attrition rate? A common assumption is that students who leave engineering lack the ability, preparation, or capacity for hard work. However, Semour and Hewitt found that students who switch out of engineering are similar to those who persist, with no significant differences in high school preparation, performance scores or effort expended.1,2 They propose that both groups experience the same set of problems, including what the students perceive as poor teaching, unapproachable faculty, and a fast-paced, "weed out" curriculum. Student ...
