Facing our Retention Challenge: a Self-Portrait

Alan D. Niemi; Robert W. Warke

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Vancouver, BC
Publication Date: June 26, 2011
Start Date: June 26, 2011
End Date: June 29, 2011
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: FPD I: Attacking the Problems of Retention in the First Year
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs
Page Count: 20
Page Numbers: 22.701.1 - 22.701.20
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--17982
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/17982
Download Count: 388

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Alan D. Niemi LeTourneau University

visit author page

Alan D. Niemi is an Associate Professor and Chair of Engineering Technology at LeTourneau University. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology from Lake Superior State University and his M.S.E.E. from Illinois Institute of Technology. He has taught courses in Electrical Engineering and Technology for 24 years. In addition to teaching, Mr. Niemi has spent seven years in industry designing digital and microcontroller systems.

visit author page

biography

Robert W. Warke LeTourneau University

visit author page

Robert W. Warke is an Associate Professor of Engineering and Engineering Technology at LeTourneau University. He received a B.S. in Welding Engineering from LeTourneau University in 1986 and an M.S. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1994. He joined the LeTourneau faculty in 2003 following 17 years of experience in industry, consulting, and applied research and development. In addition to his work in student retention, he currently teaches and consults in the areas of materials engineering, welding metallurgy, and structural weldment design and assessment.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Facing our Retention Challenge: a Self-PortraitA 32% increase in engineering and engineering technology student enrollment over a five-yearperiod at a small, private university was offset by a concurrent decline in retention rate, to arecent low of 33%. This motivated a comprehensive study to identify and address underlyingcauses and contributing factors.An online survey was developed and administered to three cohorts of non-retained students, mostof whom had completed one year or less. These collectively indicated loss of interest ormotivation as their foremost academic reason for leaving (Figure 1). This was found to beconsistent with the published findings of studies conducted by several other institutions.To enable the selection of optimal “best practices” for enhancing first-year retention at thesubject university, various internal performance and predictor data were analyzed and interpretedin light of a broad external survey of causes, trends and curricular improvements. Over 75national publications from the most recent five years were examined to identify leading factors inengineering student retention, and to identify for possible adoption any measures that hadproduced two or more consecutive years of documented improvement.This paper describes and graphically illustrates the results of the leaver survey and self-study(see Figure 2), as well as the noteworthy findings of the literature survey. Several best practiceswere adopted and are now being implemented with support from an NSF STEP grant. Lost interest in / motivation to study engineering or 5× 3 3× 2 2×1 engineering technologyHad difficulty with coursework (academic performance) 2× 3 2× 2 3× 1 1st (most) 1×1 Uncertain of future career options 3× 2 2nd Initially majored in engineering or eng. tech. due to 3rd 1 × 3 1×2 2×1parental pressure and later decided it just wasn't for me 0 5 10 15 20 25 Influence Points (respondents × weight)Figure 1. Summary of some responses to the “why they left” question in the leaver survey. Figure 2. Effect of high school GPA on 1st semester GPA and eventual graduation.

Citation
Format

Niemi, A. D., & Warke, R. W. (2011, June), Facing our Retention Challenge: a Self-Portrait Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17982

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                    Facing our Retention Challenge: a Self-PortraitA 32% increase in engineering and engineering technology student enrollment over a five-yearperiod at a small, private university was offset by a concurrent decline in retention rate, to arecent low of 33%. This motivated a comprehensive study to identify and address underlyingcauses and contributing factors.An online survey was developed and administered to three cohorts of non-retained students, mostof whom had completed one year or less. These collectively indicated loss of interest ormotivation as their foremost academic reason for leaving (Figure 1). This was found to beconsistent with the published findings of studies conducted by several other institutions.To enable the selection of optimal “best practices” for enhancing first-year retention at thesubject university, various internal performance and predictor data were analyzed and interpretedin light of a broad external survey of causes, trends and curricular improvements. Over 75national publications from the most recent five years were examined to identify leading factors inengineering student retention, and to identify for possible adoption any measures that hadproduced two or more consecutive years of documented improvement.This paper describes and graphically illustrates the results of the leaver survey and self-study(see Figure 2), as well as the noteworthy findings of the literature survey. Several best practiceswere adopted and are now being implemented with support from an NSF STEP grant.    Lost interest in / motivation to study engineering or                                                                               5× 3                   3× 2        2×1                    engineering technologyHad difficulty with coursework (academic performance)              2× 3         2× 2    3× 1                                                                                                    1st (most)                                                                              1×1                      Uncertain of future career options           3× 2                                                                                                    2nd  Initially majored in engineering or eng. tech. due to                                             3rd                                                                1 × 3 1×2 2×1parental pressure and later decided it just wasn&#39;t for me                                                            0             5            10      15            20         25                                                                     Influence Points (respondents × weight)Figure 1.       Summary of some responses to the “why they left” question in the leaver survey.    Figure 2.        Effect of high school GPA on 1st semester GPA and eventual graduation.
AU  - Alan D. Niemi
AU  - Robert W. Warke
CY  - Vancouver, BC
DA  - 2011/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Facing our Retention Challenge: a Self-Portrait
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/17982
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--17982
ER  -