Assessing the impact of a Bridge program: A mixed methods longitudinal approach

Andri Christodoulidou; Stephany Santos

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: Reimagining STEM Transitions: Bridging Gaps and Building Resilience in Post-Pandemic Education
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--55477
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/55477
Download Count: 8

Paper Authors

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Andri Christodoulidou University of Connecticut

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Dr. Andri Christodoulidou is a Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Connecticut’s College of Engineering. She holds an MPhil in Educational Research Methods and PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge, UK. Dr. Christodoulidou is the Director of Impact Assessment at the Vergnano Institute of Inclusion. In her position she designs and leads research plans to assess the impact of the Institute’s one-day and residential STEM educational programs. Also, she works with Institutional Research data to monitor retention and degree completion rates of targeted groups. She is currently part of an NSF-IGE award leadership team that focuses on developing and evaluating the impact of an innovative entrepreneurial training program with graduate STEM students.

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Stephany Santos University of Connecticut

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Stephany Santos is faculty in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, with affiliate appointments in Engineering for Human Rights and Engineering Education. She is also the Executive Director and Endowed Chair of the Vergnano Institute for Inclusion in the UConn College of Engineering.

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Abstract

Summer Bridge programs, a widely accepted strategy for facilitating students’ transition into the college learning environment, vary considerably in content and goals (Ashley et al., 2017; Smith & Williamson, 2024). In a systematic review, Smith & Williamson (2024) concluded that Bridge programs are more likely to place emphasis either on solely academic or retention related goals, than affective, or on a combination of academic with affective goals. Considering the multi-layered nature of academic success (Ndoye et al., 2020) our institution’s Bridge combines college-level instruction in core classes with activities that focus on numerous psychological factors such as student self-efficacy in academic subjects, sense of belonging to campus and program community, social and academic adjustment, and motivation to complete the engineering degree. In this study, we combine mixed methods data to evaluate the impact of Bridge with a sample of 35 engineering students of diverse ethnic backgrounds, in three phases: The first and second phases implement a repeated measures design that assesses student self-efficacy in academic subjects, sense of belonging to campus and program community, and social and academic adjustment. The first Likert type survey is distributed to students a week before the program and the second survey at the program completion. The post-program survey includes the same questions as the pre-program survey to help us examine if participation has resulted in a statistically significant growth. Two questions are added to the post program survey to facilitate understanding whether and how the program might have motivated students to complete their engineering studies. At the end of Fall semester, we follow up and examine associations between self-efficacy and academic adjustment with students’ Fall semester academic performance. The study’s quantitative findings show the program’s positive impact on the measured psychological factors, while qualitative analysis help us identify program components that strengthen student motivation to complete their engineering degree. The lack of association between psychological factors and academic performance is discussed in relation to future directions in Bridge impact assessment. Even though the results of the present study are specific to the present program’s content and goals, they can be informative to the value and assessment of similar programs aiming at student success in college.

Ashley, M., Cooper, K. M., Cala, J. M., & Brownell, S. E. (2017). Building better bridges into STEM: A synthesis of 25 years of literature on STEM summer Bridge programs. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 16(1), es3.

Ndoye, A., Clarke, S., & Henderson, C. (2020). Predicting college students’ academic success. Journal of Student Success and Retention, 6(1), 36–61.

Smith, J. M., & Williamson, J. (2024), Summer Bridge Programs for Engineering Students: A Systematic Literature Review. Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon.

Citation
Format

Christodoulidou, A., & Santos, S. (2025, June), Assessing the impact of a Bridge program: A mixed methods longitudinal approach Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . 10.18260/1-2--55477

TY - CPAPER
AB - Summer Bridge programs, a widely accepted strategy for facilitating students’ transition into the college learning environment, vary considerably in content and goals (Ashley et al., 2017; Smith &amp;amp; Williamson, 2024). In a systematic review, Smith &amp;amp; Williamson (2024) concluded that Bridge programs are more likely to place emphasis either on solely academic or retention related goals, than affective, or on a combination of academic with affective goals. Considering the multi-layered nature of academic success (Ndoye et al., 2020) our institution’s Bridge combines college-level instruction in core classes with activities that focus on numerous psychological factors such as student self-efficacy in academic subjects, sense of belonging to campus and program community, social and academic adjustment, and motivation to complete the engineering degree. In this study, we combine mixed methods data to evaluate the impact of Bridge with a sample of 35 engineering students of diverse ethnic backgrounds, in three phases: The first and second phases implement a repeated measures design that assesses student self-efficacy in academic subjects, sense of belonging to campus and program community, and social and academic adjustment. The first Likert type survey is distributed to students a week before the program and the second survey at the program completion. The post-program survey includes the same questions as the pre-program survey to help us examine if participation has resulted in a statistically significant growth. Two questions are added to the post program survey to facilitate understanding whether and how the program might have motivated students to complete their engineering studies. At the end of Fall semester, we follow up and examine associations between self-efficacy and academic adjustment with students’ Fall semester academic performance. The study’s quantitative findings show the program’s positive impact on the measured psychological factors, while qualitative analysis help us identify program components that strengthen student motivation to complete their engineering degree. The lack of association between psychological factors and academic performance is discussed in relation to future directions in Bridge impact assessment. Even though the results of the present study are specific to the present program’s content and goals, they can be informative to the value and assessment of similar programs aiming at student success in college.

Ashley, M., Cooper, K. M., Cala, J. M., &amp;amp; Brownell, S. E. (2017). Building better bridges into STEM: A synthesis of 25 years of literature on STEM summer Bridge programs. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 16(1), es3.

Ndoye, A., Clarke, S., &amp;amp; Henderson, C. (2020). Predicting college students’ academic success. Journal of Student Success and Retention, 6(1), 36–61.

Smith, J. M., &amp;amp; Williamson, J. (2024), Summer Bridge Programs for Engineering Students: A Systematic Literature Review. Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference &amp;amp; Exposition, Portland, Oregon.

AU - Andri Christodoulidou
AU - Stephany Santos
CY - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DA - 2025/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Assessing the impact of a Bridge program: A mixed methods longitudinal approach
UR - https://peer.asee.org/55477
DO - 10.18260/1-2--55477
ER -