Board 402: The First Two Years: An Overview of Contributions of the NSF CAREER: Valuing Education and Career Transition Opportunities Raising Student Success Project

Kristin Kelly Frady; Randi Sims

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: June 26, 2024
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 6
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--46990
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46990
Download Count: 81

Paper Authors

biography

Kristin Kelly Frady Clemson University orcid.org/0000-0002-4194-8848

visit author page

Kristin Frady is an Assistant Professor and Founding Program Director of the Human Capital Education and Development Bachelor of Science with a joint appointment between the Educational and Organizational Leadership Development and Engineering and Science Education Departments. Her research focuses on innovations in workforce development at educational and career transitions emphasizing two-year college and secondary STEM and career education, educational innovations, and the middle skill workforce which has resulted in over 110 publications and presentations. Kris has written and been awarded 24 federal and foundation grants totaling over $17.7 million including the National Science Foundation’s prestigious early CAREER award. Kris has also led development of nationally adopted digital learning and training tools for technician education including virtual reality tools, e-learning modules, and iBooks.

visit author page

biography

Randi Sims Clemson University orcid.org/0000-0002-6380-2460

visit author page

Randi is a current Ph.D. student in the department of Engineering and Science Education at Clemson University. Her research interests center around undergraduate research experiences using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Her career goals are to work as an evaluator or consultant on educationally based research projects with an emphasis on statistical analyses and big data.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Two-year colleges, with their open access missions, have significant impact on higher education. These institutions enroll a large percentage of the total undergraduate population (36-41 percent), and 49 percent of all students who completed a four-year degree had some previous enrollment at a two-year college. Yet, in engineering education, there is little empirical understanding of this large, pre-transfer student population. Research that does exist examines students’ post-transfer experiences at a single institution and little to none examines the impact of geographic and demographic variances between students. The purpose of this NSF CAREER grant Valuing Education and Career Transition Opportunities Raising Student Success (VECTORS) is to address this gap and advance understanding of the assets, factors, and strategies that increase two-year college engineering transfer student outcomes and improve broad access to engineering education and baccalaureate degree programs. The theoretical framework guiding this work is transfer student capital (TSC). Thus far, the mixed methods approach of this project has contributed to engineering transfer research through four initial studies. First, foundational theoretical understanding was established through a systematic literature review of the theory of TSC in engineering and STEM. This literature review described underlying theoretical frameworks and new theoretical perspectives on TSC in engineering education contexts. Second, for a national view of the engineering transfer landscape, interviews were conducted with experts and researchers focused on collecting perspectives, expertise, and knowledge of assets, factors, and strategies engineering transfer students. These interviews identified demographic and geographic assets and “friction points”, effective formal policies and interinstitutional collaborations, and the importance of increasing meaningful financial aid and financial literacy for engineering transfer students. Third, the quantitative research phase of this project shifted focus to students with the distribution of surveys to pre-transfer two-year college students. The survey was adapted from three existing engineering and general transfer student surveys. Findings revealed significant differences in skills developed and the importance of experiences with faculty and staff based on institution, gender, and first generation and nontraditional statuses. Finally, since later phases of this project will focus on developing a digital engineering transfer student dashboard, a study of existing digital transfer tools was conducted. This study collected data from expert and researcher interviews, published transfer literature, and Internet searches. Results identified degree audit tools, articulation agreement websites, cost calculators, for-profit apps, automated text engagement platforms, and various websites. While these tools all have value, none had a focus on engineering transfer or students’ personalized needs for building TSC to support successful transfer to a baccalaureate institution. In addition to the research findings of this project, other important outcomes are emerging. This includes bringing new participants into the discipline of engineering education such as experts, administrators, and faculty in other disciplines. This work also served to bring greater awareness to the specific problem identified in prior research of viewing transfer students through a deficit-based perspective. The research resulting from this current and future work will be to promote transfer students from an assets-based lens.

Citation
Format

Frady, K. K., & Sims, R. (2024, June), Board 402: The First Two Years: An Overview of Contributions of the NSF CAREER: Valuing Education and Career Transition Opportunities Raising Student Success Project Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--46990

TY - CPAPER
AB - Two-year colleges, with their open access missions, have significant impact on higher education. These institutions enroll a large percentage of the total undergraduate population (36-41 percent), and 49 percent of all students who completed a four-year degree had some previous enrollment at a two-year college. Yet, in engineering education, there is little empirical understanding of this large, pre-transfer student population. Research that does exist examines students’ post-transfer experiences at a single institution and little to none examines the impact of geographic and demographic variances between students. The purpose of this NSF CAREER grant Valuing Education and Career Transition Opportunities Raising Student Success (VECTORS) is to address this gap and advance understanding of the assets, factors, and strategies that increase two-year college engineering transfer student outcomes and improve broad access to engineering education and baccalaureate degree programs. The theoretical framework guiding this work is transfer student capital (TSC).
Thus far, the mixed methods approach of this project has contributed to engineering transfer research through four initial studies. First, foundational theoretical understanding was established through a systematic literature review of the theory of TSC in engineering and STEM. This literature review described underlying theoretical frameworks and new theoretical perspectives on TSC in engineering education contexts. Second, for a national view of the engineering transfer landscape, interviews were conducted with experts and researchers focused on collecting perspectives, expertise, and knowledge of assets, factors, and strategies engineering transfer students. These interviews identified demographic and geographic assets and “friction points”, effective formal policies and interinstitutional collaborations, and the importance of increasing meaningful financial aid and financial literacy for engineering transfer students. Third, the quantitative research phase of this project shifted focus to students with the distribution of surveys to pre-transfer two-year college students. The survey was adapted from three existing engineering and general transfer student surveys. Findings revealed significant differences in skills developed and the importance of experiences with faculty and staff based on institution, gender, and first generation and nontraditional statuses. Finally, since later phases of this project will focus on developing a digital engineering transfer student dashboard, a study of existing digital transfer tools was conducted. This study collected data from expert and researcher interviews, published transfer literature, and Internet searches. Results identified degree audit tools, articulation agreement websites, cost calculators, for-profit apps, automated text engagement platforms, and various websites. While these tools all have value, none had a focus on engineering transfer or students’ personalized needs for building TSC to support successful transfer to a baccalaureate institution.
In addition to the research findings of this project, other important outcomes are emerging. This includes bringing new participants into the discipline of engineering education such as experts, administrators, and faculty in other disciplines. This work also served to bring greater awareness to the specific problem identified in prior research of viewing transfer students through a deficit-based perspective. The research resulting from this current and future work will be to promote transfer students from an assets-based lens.
AU - Kristin Kelly Frady
AU - Randi Sims
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 402: The First Two Years: An Overview of Contributions of the NSF CAREER: Valuing Education and Career Transition Opportunities Raising Student Success Project
UR - https://peer.asee.org/46990
DO - 10.18260/1-2--46990
ER -