Analyzing and Comparing First-Year Engineering Course Requirements among Institutions
- Conference
- Location
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Penn State University , Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
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July 28, 2019
- Start Date
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July 28, 2019
- End Date
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July 30, 2019
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topic
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FYEE Conference - Paper Submission
- Page Count
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7
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--33678
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/33678
- Download Count
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325
Paper Authors
Hossein EbrahimNejad Purdue University-Main Campus, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)
Hossein Ebrahiminejad is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education at Purdue University. He completed his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in Iran. His research interests include student pathways, educational policy, and quantitative research methods.
Nicholas Jameson Tomlin MIDFIELD
Nicholas Tomlin is a research assistant at MIDFIELD and an undergraduate student majoring in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University. He is interested in engineering education and its applications in K-12 teaching and often substitute teaches in his hometown of Jeffersonville, Indiana. When he isn't studying or working, he is likely writing the next stretch of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
Hassan Ali Al Yagoub
Purdue University-Main Campus, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)
orcid.org/0000-0002-8812-4109
Hassan Al Yagoub is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education at Purdue University. His research interests include diversity & inclusion, students’ persistence, advising and mentoring, engineering career pathways, and school-to-work transition of new engineers.
He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, Hassan worked for five years at General Electric where he graduated from their Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP) and then worked as a gas turbine fleet management engineer. In addition to his technical role, Hassan supported the recruiting, interview, and selection process of the EEDP Program, where he mentored interns, co-ops and Edison associates from the Middle East and Africa regions by developing and teaching a technical training curriculum, providing guidance for graduate school applications, and providing career consultation.
Matthew W. Ohland
Purdue University-Main Campus, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)
orcid.org/0000-0003-4052-1452
Matthew W. Ohland is Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He has degrees from Swarthmore College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Florida. His research on the longitudinal study of engineering students, team assignment, peer evaluation, and active and collaborative teaching methods has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation and his team received Best Paper awards from the Journal of Engineering Education in 2008 and 2011 and from the IEEE Transactions on Education in 2011 and 2015. Dr. Ohland is an ABET Program Evaluator for ASEE. He was the 2002–2006 President of Tau Beta Pi and is a Fellow of the ASEE, IEEE, and AAAS.
George D. Ricco University Of Indianapolis
George D. Ricco is an assistant professor of engineering and first-year engineering coordinator at the University of Indianapolis. He focuses his work between teaching the first two years of introductory engineering and engineering design and research in student progression. Previously, he was a special title series assistant professor in electrical engineering at the University of Kentucky, and the KEEN Program Coordinator at Gonzaga University in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He completed his doctorate in engineering education from Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education. Previously, he received an M.S. in earth and planetary sciences studying geospatial imaging, and an M.S. in physics studying high-pressure, high-temperature FT-IR spectroscopy in heavy water, both from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds a B.S.E. in engineering physics with a concentration in electrical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. His academic interests include longitudinal analysis, visualization, semantics, team formation, gender issues, existential phenomenology, and lagomorph physiology.
Abstract
There have been a number of studies investigating the factors effecting students choosing engineering in college, but very few discuss the effect of curricular pathways on students’ engineering discipline choice after their first year engineering experience. This study aims to analyze, and present different curricular patterns undergraduate students take before choosing an engineering discipline in an institution with first year engineering matriculation model. The study also investigates how these different clusters can influence students’ major choice. This research uses a longitudinal dataset dating from 1989 to 2011 and includes over 35,000 undergraduate students matriculating in one of the big Midwestern engineering universities. The dataset includes undergraduate students who have ever declared engineering as major. The study focuses on students who matriculate in one of the seven big engineering disciplines: Aero Space, Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical, Industrial, and Mechanical engineering. At the first step, the courses students take are categorized into different categories such as introductory to engineering courses, core science courses (math, physics, and chemistry), general courses, engineering courses, and general courses. Then, a cluster analysis is conducted on courses students take before choosing an engineering discipline. Then a regression model is applied to investigate the effect of these clusters on student’s major choice. The preliminary result show the variety of curricular clusters students take throughout their first semester. By considering the courses that are offered and recommended by the institution, we illustrate a comparison between courses that are offered, and courses students end up taking. The results also show the effect of curricular policies on students’ curricular pathways. This effort will lead in establishing a standard database for course classification in engineering curricula. The established classification can be the foundation for creating a common language for future cross institution studies. The findings can also provide useful information for students, institution administrators, and local and national policy makers.
EbrahimNejad, H., & Tomlin, N. J., & Al Yagoub, H. A., & Ohland, M. W., & Ricco, G. D. (2019, July), Analyzing and Comparing First-Year Engineering Course Requirements among Institutions Paper presented at 2019 FYEE Conference , Penn State University , Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--33678
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