Does Peer Mentoring Help Students be Successful in an Introductory Engineering Course?

Abstract

Previous literature shows that first year engineering students face challenges transitioning from high school to college due to higher academic expectations. In addition to the registration process, financial aid application and tuition requirements, there are other aspects of college admission that add to the challenges for students. For engineering students, the academic challenges arise due to lack of technical and problem-solving skills that are required for higher level mathematics, science and introductory engineering coursework. Many higher education institutions have developed their first-year engineering curriculum with a broad perspective that welcomes students and allow them to explore options for choosing their majors. Even though the first-year curriculum is fundamental, students seem to find the coursework difficult and overwhelming especially during the first semester. In order to help students in overcoming these academic challenges, several learning pedagogies have been developed by instructors and implemented in the classrooms. Many of these studies focus on strategies to improve student performance in a classroom. The assessment of the student performance in most of these studies is limited to the overall student grade. This research study presents peer mentoring strategy that helps students succeed in an introductory engineering course. The research objectives in this study are: 1) to illustrate how peer mentoring helps improve the student performance and 2) to explore the correlation between student participation in peer mentoring sessions and the overall grade of the student which serves as a factor to determine student's success in a classroom.First year engineering curriculum includes two semester course sequence: Fundamentals of Engineering I (offered in the first semester) and Fundamentals of Engineering II (offered in the second semester). Data is presented from the first semester course offered at the regional campus of a large, research institution. Fundamentals of Engineering I course include the following sections as three main components of the coursework. a) Introduction to data analysis tool such as Microsoft Excel, b) Computer programming in MATLAB, and c) Design project. Teamwork and collaboration are heavily weighted for the assessment of student performance in the course. The peer mentoring strategy presented in this study is unique in terms of scheduling flexibility, accessibility of resources and support from academic success center on campus to help sustain the mentoring program.Preliminary research findings indicate that students benefit from the interactions with mentors and learn from the shared experiences. Being mentored from a peer has helped students develop critical thinking skills that are important to solve open-ended and real-world problems. It is also noted that students were able to advance their computer programming skills because of their interactions with peers. Analysis of the preliminary data shows that the peer mentoring sessions help students score a be...

Friendly Mentor or Former Consultant: Peer Mentors in First-Year Engineering Courses

“…In regards to retention, Gattis et al (2007) showed that peer mentoring led to a 16% increase in retention between the first two semesters for first year engineering students (94% versus 78% for mentored and nonmentored students respectively) [21]. In a different study, peer mentoring in a fundamentals of engineering course was correlated to a 10% increase in students who received a grade of C or higher in the course [22]. Thus, the reviewed literature suggests that there are advantages to the use of peer mentorship in first year engineering classrooms.…”

Work-In-Progress: An Updated Peer Mentorship Strategy for First Year Engineering

“…Within this atmosphere of enrollment pressures and promotion of student success, previous work was carried out at Anderson University, a small enrollment-driven institution, to develop a peer mentorship program for first-year engineering students [2]. This work adapted lessons learned from other, much larger engineering programs into a cohesive peer mentorship program in this smaller context [11,12,13,14,15]. The results of this previous work indicated promising results in short-term retention and an increased feeling of connection with the engineering program.…”

Work-In-Progress: Applying Peer Mentorship in a First Year Engineering Course to Improve Student Learning and Retention Outcomes

“…In 2019, Tahmina explored the impact of peer mentorship on student success in an introductory engineering course at The Ohio State University at Marion [7]. In their work, they explore two peer mentorship options (a) scheduled peer mentoring, where peer mentors essentially hold open office hours and (b) a mentor-mentee pairing.…”