Community-Engaged First Year Learning Community
- Conference
- Location
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East Lansing, Michigan
- Publication Date
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July 31, 2022
- Start Date
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July 31, 2022
- End Date
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August 2, 2022
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topics
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Diversity and Full Papers
- Page Count
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7
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--42220
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/42220
- Download Count
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220
Paper Authors
William C. Oakes
Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)
orcid.org/0000-0002-6183-045X
William (Bill) Oakes is a 150th Anniversary Professor, the Director of the EPICS Program and one of the founding faculty members of the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He has held courtesy appointments in Mechanical, Environmental and Ecological Engineering as well as Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education. He is a registered professional engineer and on the NSPE board for Professional Engineers in Higher Education. He has been active in ASEE serving in the FPD, CIP and ERM. He is the past chair of the IN/IL section. He is a fellow of the Teaching Academy and listed in the Book of Great Teachers at Purdue University. He was the first engineering faculty member to receive the national Campus Compact Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning. He was a co-recipient of the National Academy of Engineering’s Bernard Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education and the recipient of the National Society of Professional Engineers’ Educational Excellence Award and the ASEE Chester Carlson Award. He is a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Srinivas Mohan Dustker
Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)
orcid.org/0000-0002-3840-7450
Srinivas Dustker is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education at Purdue University. His research interests include community engaged learning, integration of service-learning in undergraduate engineering curriculum, faculty development, curriculum development, education policy and technology integration in engineering education. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Management from B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bengaluru, India and his Master of Science in Industrial and Operations Engineering from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States.
Abstract
Community Engaged Learning is a pedagogy that integrates academic learning with service activities and partnerships with local or global communities. The approach has shown many benefits to learning and student motivation. Within engineering it has shown benefits that include broadening the view of engineering which has been linked to efforts to increase diversity within engineering. Building cohorts of first-year students has also been linked to increases in persistence through learning communities and interest groups. This paper will provide a description of a first-year engineering learning community that uses a community-based design experience as an alternative to the traditional first-year introductory engineering courses. Students are given the option to live together and take a cohort of 2-3 classes together. Outside of class activities are done to connect students and instructors outside of the traditional classrooms. The learning community has grown to over 300 students per year. The classes and processes are explained and data shared that illustrates the positive impact of the approach. Female students are drawn to this option at 160% the rate of the overall first-year program. Data shows that they choose this option to gain engineering experience that connects with issues that matter to others.
Oakes, W. C., & Dustker, S. M. (2022, July), Community-Engaged First Year Learning Community Paper presented at 2022 First-Year Engineering Experience, East Lansing, Michigan. 10.18260/1-2--42220
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