Longitudinal Memos Investigating First-year Engineering Pathways

Cassondra Wallwey; Abigail Clark; Soundouss Sassi; Katherine Elmore; Rachel Louis Kajfez; Mahnas Jean Mohammadi-Aragh; Anastasia Nicole Doty

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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: NSF Grantees: First Year Programming (2)
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 6
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34932
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34932
Download Count: 268

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Paper Authors

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Cassondra Wallwey Ohio State University

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Cassie Wallwey is currently a Ph.D. student in Ohio State University's Department of Engineering Education. She is a Graduate Teaching Associate for the Fundamentals of Engineering Honors program, and a Graduate Research Associate working in the RIME collaborative (https://u.osu.edu/rimetime) run by Dr. Rachel Kajfez. Her research interests include engineering student motivation and feedback in engineering classrooms. Before enrolling at Ohio State University, Cassie earned her B.S. (2017) and M.S. (2018) in Biomedical Engineering from Wright State University.

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Abigail Clark Ohio State University orcid.org/0000-0002-2214-2160

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Abigail Clark is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She is currently advised by Dr. Rachel Kajfez, and is part of the RIME collaborative (https://u.osu.edu/rimetime). Her research interests include engineering identity development in K12 students, engineering education in informal settings, and women’s experiences in the engineering field. Prior to coming to Ohio State, Abigail worked as a researcher at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, OH. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio Northern University.

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Soundouss Sassi Mississippi State University

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Soundouss Sassi is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education at Mississippi State University. Her advisor is Dr. Jean Mohammadi Aragh. In 2016 she earned a Master in Aerospace Engineering from the same university. Prior to that, she earned a Bachelor in Aerospace Engineering from the International University of Rabat (UIR)

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Katherine Elmore Mississippi State University

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Rachel Louis Kajfez Ohio State University orcid.org/0000-0001-9745-1921

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Dr. Rachel Louis Kajfez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from Ohio State and earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. Her research interests focus on the intersection between motivation and identity of undergraduate and graduate students, first-year engineering programs, mixed methods research, and innovative approaches to teaching. She is the principal investigator for the RIME Collaborative.

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Mahnas Jean Mohammadi-Aragh Mississippi State University orcid.org/0000-0002-3094-3734

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Dr. Jean Mohammadi-Aragh is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University. Dr. Mohammadi-Aragh investigates the use of digital systems to measure and support engineering education, specifically through learning analytics and the pedagogical uses of digital systems. She also investigates fundamental questions critical to improving undergraduate engineering degree pathways. . She earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. In 2013, Dr. Mohammadi-Aragh was honored as a promising new engineering education researcher when she was selected as an ASEE Educational Research and Methods Division Apprentice Faculty.

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Anastasia Nicole Doty Ohio State University

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Abstract

For many students, first-year engineering (FYE) courses are their first exposure to engineering. It is important that FYE course instructors and administrators are mindful of course design and how FYE courses impact students’ initial engineering experience. Extensive literature exists explaining how various FYE programs are structured, but there is far less literature that explores the impact of FYE content, structure, and timing on students’ experiences.

Our work contributes to the literature by examining how students develop their engineering identities within two FYE frameworks with different content, structure, and timing. We are also examining how different types of FYE experiences impact the engineering communities students build throughout their college experience. Our project compares both traditional and non-traditional students from two separate institutions including a subpopulation of students from each institutions’ regional campuses. To date, we have conducted two phases of interviews. The first phase was conducted in the spring of 2018 and included 29 student interviews. Students of various first-year pathways, races, and genders were selected to ensure sample diversity. During the initial interviews, students were asked questions related to their FYE experience, communities of people they were involved with, and their identity as an engineer. The second phase of interviews was conducted in the spring of 2019 with 23 student interviews. Of the 23 second phase interviews, 16 of those were students participated in both phase one and phase two interviews. In the second phase, we asked follow-up questions related to the topics of identity and community. We also asked students to describe any changes since we last spoke to them. Both phases of interviews were coded in the summer of 2019. In order to have a deeper understanding of each students’ development of engineering identity with respect to the communities, we will conduct a third phase of interviews in Spring 2020.

This executive summary discusses what has been completed to date in this project, focusing on our processes and findings related to creating longitudinal memos to support the third phase interviews. The questions for the third phase interviews will be more personalized than prior interviews and allow us to clarify initial findings from the first and second phase. In order to prepare for the third phase, longitudinal memos of the 16 repeating participants were created to track participant development over time. These memos consisted of summaries of both interviews and researcher notes on participants relating to identity and community. For example, researcher notes include information about what seemed most important to the participant in each interview and what had changed about the participant from one interview to the next.

The memos were created with a goal of developing more targeted questions necessary for phase three interviews. The memos enrich what we know about each individual student’s experience allowing us to extract meaning from the transcripts more holistically. Ultimately, through this work, we hope that understanding the students’ experiences can better inform the ways FYE is created to increase positive impacts on engineering identity and community development.

Citation
Format

Wallwey, C., & Clark, A., & Sassi, S., & Elmore, K., & Kajfez, R. L., & Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & Doty, A. N. (2020, June), Longitudinal Memos Investigating First-year Engineering Pathways Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34932

TY - CPAPER
AB - For many students, first-year engineering (FYE) courses are their first exposure to engineering. It is important that FYE course instructors and administrators are mindful of course design and how FYE courses impact students’ initial engineering experience. Extensive literature exists explaining how various FYE programs are structured, but there is far less literature that explores the impact of FYE content, structure, and timing on students’ experiences.

Our work contributes to the literature by examining how students develop their engineering identities within two FYE frameworks with different content, structure, and timing. We are also examining how different types of FYE experiences impact the engineering communities students build throughout their college experience. Our project compares both traditional and non-traditional students from two separate institutions including a subpopulation of students from each institutions’ regional campuses. To date, we have conducted two phases of interviews. The first phase was conducted in the spring of 2018 and included 29 student interviews. Students of various first-year pathways, races, and genders were selected to ensure sample diversity. During the initial interviews, students were asked questions related to their FYE experience, communities of people they were involved with, and their identity as an engineer. The second phase of interviews was conducted in the spring of 2019 with 23 student interviews. Of the 23 second phase interviews, 16 of those were students participated in both phase one and phase two interviews. In the second phase, we asked follow-up questions related to the topics of identity and community. We also asked students to describe any changes since we last spoke to them. Both phases of interviews were coded in the summer of 2019. In order to have a deeper understanding of each students’ development of engineering identity with respect to the communities, we will conduct a third phase of interviews in Spring 2020.

This executive summary discusses what has been completed to date in this project, focusing on our processes and findings related to creating longitudinal memos to support the third phase interviews. The questions for the third phase interviews will be more personalized than prior interviews and allow us to clarify initial findings from the first and second phase. In order to prepare for the third phase, longitudinal memos of the 16 repeating participants were created to track participant development over time. These memos consisted of summaries of both interviews and researcher notes on participants relating to identity and community. For example, researcher notes include information about what seemed most important to the participant in each interview and what had changed about the participant from one interview to the next.

The memos were created with a goal of developing more targeted questions necessary for phase three interviews. The memos enrich what we know about each individual student’s experience allowing us to extract meaning from the transcripts more holistically. Ultimately, through this work, we hope that understanding the students’ experiences can better inform the ways FYE is created to increase positive impacts on engineering identity and community development.

AU - Cassondra Wallwey
AU - Abigail Clark
AU - Soundouss Sassi
AU - Katherine Elmore
AU - Rachel Louis Kajfez
AU - Mahnas Jean Mohammadi-Aragh
AU - Anastasia Nicole Doty
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Longitudinal Memos Investigating First-year Engineering Pathways
UR - https://peer.asee.org/34932
DO - 10.18260/1-2--34932
ER -