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Applying Learning Community Pedagogy To First Year Computer Engineering Technology Students: A Pilot Program

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Conference

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Chicago, Illinois

Publication Date

June 18, 2006

Start Date

June 18, 2006

End Date

June 21, 2006

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Computer ET Curriculum

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology

Page Count

7

Page Numbers

11.225.1 - 11.225.7

DOI

10.18260/1-2--49

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/49

Download Count

453

Paper Authors

biography

James Hurny Rochester Institute of Technology

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James J. Hurny is an Assistant Professor in the department of Electrical, Computer, and Telecommunications Engineering Technology where he teaches a wide variety of courses in analog electronics with additional experience in value analysis and engineering economics. In addition, he has had over 33 years experience in industry at Eastman Kodak Company. He serves as a program evaluator for TAC/ABET.

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biography

Gina Hurny Pennsylvania State University

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Gina L. Hurny is the Program Director for Leadership Development in the Center for Student Engagement at The Pennsylvania State University. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Recreation Management from Slippery Rock University and her Master of Science Degree in Higher Education from Syracuse University. She is responsible for the creation, implementation, and facilitation of a variety of leadership programs. During 2006, she will be serving as a Cluster Facilitator at the LeaderShape Institute in Champaign, Illinois.

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Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Applying Learning Community Pedagogy to First-Year Computer Engineering Technology Students: A Pilot Program

Abstract Student attrition and student learning are of major interest to colleges and universities. Collaborative learning or more specifically learning communities with its associated pedagogy is offered as an approach to enhance both. This paper describes a pilot approach at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The purpose of this program was to integrate learning community concepts and methodologies into the instruction protocol of Computer Engineering Technology (CpET) first-year students. The creation of an interdisciplinary collaboration would be used to enable the continual integration of liberal arts course work and “soft skill” training into technical course instruction over a three quarter academic year. The organizational and classroom structures were used to effectively support the introduction of learning communities. Implementation results of the pilot program are also presented.

Introduction “Student attrition in the first year of college is an issue of concern for all post secondary institutions.” 4 Discussions across academia indicate student learning is also of major interest to these same institutions. Common causes of student departure include; difficulties making the transition from high school to college, social isolation, and external pressures.10 “Although some aspects of students’ lives are not within the university’s sphere of influence, colleges utilize a variety of programs to address some of the factors critical to student success, such as adjustment to college, academic skill building, and interactions among students and between students and faculty”.8 Learning communities, which are becoming a staple in higher education, address these factors and are designed to increase student retention and academic achievement.4

According to the National Learning Communities Project, learning communities have arrived as a national movement and are now part of the vocabulary of higher education. Learning communities are defined as “purposeful restructuring of the curriculum by linking courses that enroll a common cohort of students. Learning communities for incoming first-year students have taken hold as a method of reducing attrition and enhancing learning. This represents an intentional structuring of the students’ time, credit, and learning experiences to build community, and foster more explicit connections among students, faculty, and disciplines”. 2

Background To support its retention initiative RIT, beginning with the 2004-2005 academic year, implemented an institute wide pilot program to introduce learning communities to incoming first-year students. The purpose of the pilot program was to evaluate whether the claimed benefits of learning communities could be substantially achieved within the RIT setting and ultimately become the basis for a campus wide implementation encompassing all future incoming first-year students.

The pilot program was strictly voluntary. All colleges, departments, programs, and faculty were encouraged to participate. The result was the formation of 14 learning communities

Hurny, J., & Hurny, G. (2006, June), Applying Learning Community Pedagogy To First Year Computer Engineering Technology Students: A Pilot Program Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--49

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2006 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015