Enhancing the recruitment and retention of first-year students with improved career selection opportunities

Abstract

The paper describes an on-goingproject to improve thepersistence of jirst-year engineering technology majors. This project involves a pilot course that uses an experiential leaming approach to provide students with an improved understanding of engineering and technology. The teamtaught course also helps to develop the students' academic support system, including interaction with upper-class technology students. Initial evaluations indicate that the students found the attitude of the faculty, the active-leaming instructional method, and content material helpful in their career selection and persistence in the technical area.

The Impact of a Discipline‐Based Introduction to Engineering Course on Improving Retention

“…7,11,14,15,18 Two studies were found that used written student evaluations and interviews to assess student opinions in more depth. 10,19 Retention studies have been used in a minority of cases, either alone 9 or in combination with a questionnaire. 8,12 The absence of a control group is pervasive, especially in studies that use a questionnaire.…”

“…7 Milano et al 8 describe how limiting the focus of an introductory course to a subset of engineering disciplines (usually mechanical, electrical, and either manufacturing or industrial) enabled the instructors to devote more time to each design effort. Dini et al, 9 McDonald, 10 and Rizkalla et al 11 used a similar approach, but also included some aspects of the success-based courses described earlier.…”

Addressing First-year Issues in Engineering Education

“…'professional engineering? or 'introduction to engineering', Course planners of introductory courses [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] wanted to see that the course "really is an introduction to engineering rather than just labelled that" [13]. Such courses were considered successful in developing an awareness of the engineering profession and, in particular, ways of thinking and attitudes necessary for the practitioner.…”

Retention Strategies In Smaller Technology Majors

“…Engineering and technology educators and administrators have written about retention issues extensively. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] An important factor in retention is the first-year experience. 1 The body of work for increasing retention is differentiated by two types of instruction, one that offers lecture style, passive learning environments and the other that provides experiential learning with hands-on experience.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] An important factor in retention is the first-year experience. 1 The body of work for increasing retention is differentiated by two types of instruction, one that offers lecture style, passive learning environments and the other that provides experiential learning with hands-on experience. Each institution should reflect and examine it's own internal dynamics and reasons why students leave engineering technology programs as suggested by the study.…”