Asee peer logo

First Year Engineering Student Advice for Succeeding in Online Courses

Download Paper |

Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Student Division Technical Session 5

Tagged Division

Student

Page Count

18

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37193

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37193

Download Count

358

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Amanda Marie Singer Michigan Technological University

visit author page

Amanda Singer is an Environmental Engineering master's candidate at Michigan Technological University. She graduated in 2019 from Michigan Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering. Her current research focuses on perceptions of first year engineering students on the engineering disciplines, service learning outcomes and online education. She will be attending Ohio State University in Fall 2021 to pursue a PhD in Engineering Education.

visit author page

biography

Michelle E. Jarvie-Eggart Michigan Technological University

visit author page

Dr. Jarvie-Eggart is a registered professional engineer with over a decade of experience as an environmental engineer. She lectures in the Engineering Fundamentals department at Michigan Technological University. Her research interests include technology adoption, online learning, service learning, sustainability and diversity in engineering.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

This complete research paper explores first year engineering (FYE) students’ advice for attaining success in online learning. In the spring semester of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic thrust higher education students from their traditional classroom settings into online learning platforms. Students typically seek online learning opportunities due to the flexibility and convenience of the format, allowing balance between work and family life with school responsibilities. This emergency shift to online courses presented a unique opportunity to gain insight in the attitudes of unwilling online learners and identifies these students as ample sources of advice for future online learners.

At the conclusion of the spring 2020 semester, 233 first-year engineering students from a public technical university were asked to provide advice for incoming engineering students completing courses in the online environment. Advice from 67 student teams was collected through an in-class assignment. Student responses were anonymized and coded using analytic induction and convergent coding methods within a grounded theory framework. An initial codebook was developed using codes from research previously conducted by the authors, with additional codes being added as a consensus in response coding was reached amongst researchers.

Results indicated that time management was the top concern for online students, followed by readiness to learn online, which included managing distractions to online learning and learning in dedicated spaces. Self-care also emerged as a more significant concern for online first year engineering students than in person first year engineering students, including sleep hygiene, study/screen breaks, staying hydrated, getting dressed and exercising, all relevant issues for those working and learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to these results, we recommend that instructors of introductory online courses integrate materials about time management, distraction management, and self-care into their classes.

Singer, A. M., & Jarvie-Eggart, M. E. (2021, July), First Year Engineering Student Advice for Succeeding in Online Courses Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37193

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2021 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015