In response to the Nation's need to improve the preparation of undergraduate students so they can succeed as productive members of the future STEM workforce, this project expands and explores an instructional approach that has shown promising results in increasing the success of undergraduate engineering students in an introductory course - engineering design graphics. The overarching purpose of the project is to refine a transferable active learning framework and the associated instructional resources to promote engineering persistence, academic success, and engagement. Such an instructional approach is critical and has strong implications for student persistence in engineering degree programs. The impacts of this project will include: (a) promoting the design and development of effective STEM learning and teaching knowledge and practice; (b) broadening the implementation of effective instructional practices and innovations; (c) enhancing retention of STEM students by addressing high failure rates in introductory classes; and (d) increasing the persistence of all demographic groups in the first two years of college.
More specifically, the project's approach will involve the use of active performance learning modules. The investigative team will explore the factors that affect program persistence in order to create a curricular approach that will improve the student experience, particularly for at-risk students, such as female students, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation college students. The instructional approach of this project will be disseminated to other two- and four-year institutions and will include recommendations for identifying at-risk students and for improving student engagement and retention. A mixed-methods design will enable the investigative team to collect and analyze information from students related to: program persistence, self-efficacy, academic success, and engagement. The project will have implications not only for effectiveness of student learning, but also for the retention of students in engineering.
