Departures from the “Norm”: How Nontraditional Undergraduates Defined Their Success in an Alternative Engineering Transfer Program

Angela Minichiello; Oenardi Lawanto; Sherry Marx

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Experiences of Underrepresented Students in Engineering
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 19
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34380
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34380
Download Count: 414

Paper Authors

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Angela Minichiello P.E. Utah State University orcid.org/0000-0002-4545-9355

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Angela Minichiello is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Utah State University (USU) and a registered professional mechanical engineer. Her research examines issues of access, diversity, and inclusivity in engineering education. In particular, she is interested in engineering identity, problem-solving, and the intersections of online learning and alternative pathways for adult, nontraditional, and veteran undergraduates in engineering.

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Oenardi Lawanto Utah State University

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Dr. Oenardi Lawanto is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Utah State University, USA. He received his B.S.E.E. from Iowa State University, his M.S.E.E. from the University of Dayton, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before coming to Utah State, Dr. Lawanto taught and held several administrative positions at one large private university in Indonesia. He has developed and delivered numerous international workshops on student-centered learning and online learning-related topics during his service. Dr. Lawanto’s research interests include cognition, learning, and instruction, and online learning.

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Sherry Marx Utah State University

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Sherry Marx, PhD, is a professor of qualitative research methodologies, ESL education, and multicultural education.

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Abstract

This research paper presents findings from a narrative qualitative research study conducted with 14 nontraditional undergraduates (14 white; 13 male 1 female) enrolled in a 2-year engineering transfer program. The engineering transfer program was offered by a four-year, public land grant institution, located in the western United States, to provide an alternative pathway to engineering degrees for geographically dispersed students located throughout the state. Nontraditional undergraduates comprise a growing population within U.S. higher education who, based on age-, education-, and socioeconomic-related factors, do not fit within the grand narrative of the “traditional” college undergraduate. Nontraditional undergraduates include those who delay college entry, attend college part-time, work full-time, financially support themselves and/or dependents, are single parents, and/or become eligible to attend college via credentials considered equivalent to earning a high school diploma (i.e., General Education Development or GED). In addition, many nontraditional students share intersecting identities with other gender, racial, and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

Based upon national recognition that nontraditional students possess untapped potential to strengthen and diversify the engineering workforce, the purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine the lived experience of nontraditional students engaged along alternative pathways to engineering degrees. Providing new understandings of how nontraditional students made sense of their engineering education experiences, this work reports on the ways nontraditional engineering students narratively described their success in the context of the two-year transfer program. Findings revealed that participants’ views of success included common measures of academic success in engineering; they also reflected participants’ longer-term career goals and financial plans. Findings have implications for the development of robust engineering pathways at both 2- and 4- year institutions.

Citation
Format

Minichiello, A., & Lawanto, O., & Marx, S. (2020, June), Departures from the “Norm”: How Nontraditional Undergraduates Defined Their Success in an Alternative Engineering Transfer Program Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34380

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This research paper presents findings from a narrative qualitative research study conducted with 14 nontraditional undergraduates (14 white; 13 male 1 female) enrolled in a 2-year engineering transfer program. The engineering transfer program was offered by a four-year, public land grant institution, located in the western United States, to provide an alternative pathway to engineering degrees for geographically dispersed students located throughout the state. Nontraditional undergraduates comprise a growing population within U.S. higher education who, based on age-, education-, and socioeconomic-related factors, do not fit within the grand narrative of the “traditional” college undergraduate. Nontraditional undergraduates include those who delay college entry, attend college part-time, work full-time, financially support themselves and/or dependents, are single parents, and/or become eligible to attend college via credentials considered equivalent to earning a high school diploma (i.e., General Education Development or GED). In addition, many nontraditional students share intersecting identities with other gender, racial, and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. 

Based upon national recognition that nontraditional students possess untapped potential to strengthen and diversify the engineering workforce, the purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine the lived experience of nontraditional students engaged along alternative pathways to engineering degrees. Providing new understandings of how nontraditional students made sense of their engineering education experiences, this work reports on the ways nontraditional engineering students narratively described their success in the context of the two-year transfer program. Findings revealed that participants’ views of success included common measures of academic success in engineering; they also reflected participants’ longer-term career goals and financial plans. Findings have implications for the development of robust engineering pathways at both 2- and 4- year institutions.

AU  - Angela Minichiello P.E.
AU  - Oenardi Lawanto
AU  - Sherry Marx
CY  - Virtual On line 
DA  - 2020/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Departures from the “Norm”: How Nontraditional Undergraduates Defined Their Success in an Alternative Engineering Transfer Program
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/34380
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--34380
ER  -