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Retention, success, and satisfaction of engineering students based on the first-year experience
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Prendergast, Lydia Q.. Retention, success, and satisfaction of engineering students based on the first-year experience. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3Q81BQ9

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TitleRetention, success, and satisfaction of engineering students based on the first-year experience
NamePrendergast, Lydia Q. (author); Etkina, Eugenia (chair); Albin, Susan (internal member); Coit, David (internal member); Weber, Keith (internal member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - New Brunswick
Date Created2013
Other Date2013-01 (degree)
SubjectEducation, Engineering students, Dropouts--Prevention, Women engineering students, College majors
Extentvii, 136 p. : ill.
DescriptionA project-based course for first-year engineering students, called Engineering Exploration, was created an implemented with the goals of increasing retention, providing professional skills, increasing interest about engineering, and to aide in choosing an engineering major. Over 100 students have taken the course since its inception in Fall 2009. Retention rates, GPA, and opinions of engineering students have improved for the cohort of students who took the course. Minority retention however did not see a steady increase. Female persistence in engineering was also explored in this study. While beneficial for women, the course was not as beneficial for them as it was for their male counterparts. Women who took the course and subsequently recounted reasons for leaving as being primarily due to educational pursuits outside of engineering. Faculty involvement in the first year was crucial in students’ experiences choosing a major. Future goals are to offer the course to more students, continue to fine tune the curriculum to make it more beneficial, increase awareness to faculty members, create an engineering video library for tours and virtual problem solving, and to create a secondary project-based course in the second year, specific to particular engineering majors. In total, Engineering Exploration has proven to be a benefit to the first-year experience for engineering students.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Lydia Q. Prendergast
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3Q81BQ9
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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