10Kathleen Kallen, STEP Program Director, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Western .... (ASCE); and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and.
Session S3E
Assessment of Faculty Mentoring Strategies of Student Learning Communities at Western Michigan University College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Edmund Tsang1, Cynthia Halderson2, Ikhlas Abdel-Qader3, Betsy Aller4, Steven Butt5, Andrew Kline6, Damon Miller7, Troy Place8, Sherif Yehia9, and Kathleen Kallen10 Abstract – Learning Communities involving 263 first-year students were created at Western Michigan University College of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Fall Semester 2005 to enhance student learning and improve first-year retention. Placing groups of students in the same 2to-4 classes did achieve the program’s goals of creating connection among students and forming student study groups. There do not appear to be any major differences in student satisfaction among Learning Communities with regular “face-to-face” contact with a faculty mentor and those without regular “face-to-face” contact. However, it appears that it is important to students’ satisfaction with the first semester, and perhaps to their more promptly “testing” their fit in the field, to enroll them in an engineering course early in their academic career. Index Terms – Learning Community, first-year engineering experience, faculty mentoring. INTRODUCTION Learning communities are a familiar practice in postsecondary education, likely used in four to five hundred American colleges and universities [1]. Various forms of learning communities are also increasingly seen in K-12 education, involving both teachers [2] and students, the latter through use of cooperative group work [3]. Thus, the transition from high school to a university without learning communities often results in a disconnect for students from nurturing teachers and many opportunities for student-student interactions to a vastly greater anonymity.
Early roots of learning communities developed in the 1920s, and the practice was revived in the 1960s when rapid increases in the number of postsecondary students served prompted institutions to experiment with structural changes that would “humanize the scale of higher education and promote community” among students [1]. Communities take various forms that differ in their emphasis on the group targeted and the structural, curricular, and/or pedagogical changes entailed. Gabelnick and others [4] identified five types of learning communities, including linked courses, learning clusters with common cohorts of students, and first-year interest groups. At Western Michigan University (WMU), the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) uses two kinds of learning communities – learning clusters of firstyear students and a faculty learning community that explores curricular and instructional issues. In Fall Semester 2005, 263 WMU-CEAS first-time firstyear students were placed into Learning Communities in which groups of ~20 students were enrolled in the same cluster of 2to-4 courses to support learning and to promote connection and retention. Some of the Learning Communities were disciplinespecific (Civil and Construction Engineering, Engineering Undecided) while the others were based on mathematics placement (Calculus I, Pre-Calculus, and Algebra II). Technical Communication (IME 1020) serves as the anchor course for all the Learning Communities, and the remaining courses in the cluster are mathematics, chemistry, engineering graphics, or introduction to engineering. Each group was assigned a faculty mentor, who interacted with ~20 students in informal small group settings through joint attendance of four co-curricular activities meant to promote student engagement and connection to the college and university. Some mentors
1
Edmund Tsang, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs & Assessment, Western Michigan University. Cynthia Halderson, Science And Mathematics Program Improvement (SAMPI), Mallison Institute for Science Education, Western Michigan University. 3 Ikhlas Abdel-Qader, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western Michigan University. 4 Betsy Aller, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Western Michigan University. 5 Steven Butt, Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Western Michigan University. 6 Andrew Kline, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of Engineering Design Center for Service-Learning, Western Michigan University. 7 Damon Miller, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western Michigan University. 8 Troy Place, Academic Specialist, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Western Michigan University 9 Sherif Yehia, Assistant Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering, Western Michigan University 10 Kathleen Kallen, STEP Program Director, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Western Michigan University 2
1-4244-0257-3/06/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE October 28-31, 2006, San Diego, CA 36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S3E-1
Session S3E were actually instructors of one of the courses in the students’ cluster; others maintained contact primarily through classroom visits, small group meetings, and email. The project was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP). This paper will describe the demographics of the student population of the STEP Learning Communities, the mentors’ roles, the co-curricular activities, and the preliminary results of assessment of students forming study groups; student and faculty connection; student participation in and awareness of the value of co-curricular activities; development of positive habits such as leveraging the faculty mentors and subject tutors, and students regularly checking their “wmich.edu” email account to stay connected. In addition, preliminary results of passing rate and grade point average of key core courses of the first-semester engineering curriculum will be presented and compared. Finally, the findings and their implications for future programming to support learning and retention will be discussed. STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS WMU serves a heterogeneous student population. An indicator of the diverse preparation of first-time first-year students pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors is their first-semester mathematics course, which is shown in Table I below. TABLE I 1ST SEMESTER MATHEMATICS PLACEMENT Math Fall 2002** Fall Fall Fall Courses 2003** 2004*** 2005*** * Placed Calculus II 9.2% 9.4% 7% 9.7% or higher Calculus I 25.5% 24.5% 22.2% 31.5% Pre-Calculus
25.5%
25.3%
23.7%
24.9%
Algebra II
28.9%
27.0%
30.3%
23.4%
Algebra I /Developmen t Math No Math Data
7.9%
10.3%
12.5%
7.0%
3.0%
3.4%
4.2%
3.5%
*In Fall Semester 2005, mathematics enrollment is based on students’ ACT Math Score. In 2002-2004, mathematics enrollment was based on a combination of ACT Math Score and Math Placement Exam. ** CEAS Data Only ***STEM Data The following demographics and background information describe the 263 participants: • 37 Female and 226 Male; 18 African-Americans, 7 Hispanics, and 5 Asian/Pacific Islanders. • Mean number of high school science courses taken is 4.0, range is 2 – 8: more than required in the State of Michigan for graduation from high school.
• •
Mean number of high school math courses taken is 4.5, range is 1 – 8: more than required in the State of Michigan for graduation from high school. Mean ACT scores – ACT English 21.4
•
• •
ACT Math 24.6
ACT Reading 22.8
ACT Science 24.1
ACT Composite 23.2
119 have an ACT Math Score greater than 27 (45.2%); 86 have an ACT Math Score between 24 and 26 (32.7%); 54 have an ACT Math Score between 19 and 23 (20.5%); and 4 have an ACT Math Score between 16 and 18 (1.5%). 28% were first-generation students (neither parent attended college). 34.6% are employed (11.9% work on campus and 22.7% off-campus); average on-campus work = 12 hours/week, off-campus work = 16.4 hours/week. OVERVIEW OF THE MENTOR ROLE
The role of mentors was twofold. They were to monitor student progress through the term and provide assistance as needed, and they were to encourage student participation in cocurricular activities, both social and STEM-related. For example, they might invite students to a STEM-related discussion or presentation, or they might organize a pizza party or provide a field trip to a local engineering firm. Some faculty mentors organized small group meetings, while others visited their mentees in class or mentored via email. Four student cohorts were enrolled in two courses for which professors/instructors also served as faculty mentors. One course was ENGR 1010, a three-credit introduction to engineering design. Three sections of the course were taught by instructors who also served as faculty mentors. In one section, the instructor was assigned to mentor the cohort, who comprised a large part of the course enrollment. In the other two sections, the instructor was a faculty mentor but for a different cohort than the ones enrolled. The second course was IME 1020, a three-credit course in Technical Communication. The instructor was the mentor of a 13-member cohort that formed a subset of the class. Early in the academic year, the question was asked among project staff whether students who had face-to-face contact with a mentor (whether theirs or not) through course enrollment had different reactions to the program from those whose contact with mentors was less formal. CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES Co-curricular activities of the STEP Learning Communities are created for the purpose of increasing student awareness of careers and opportunities, and life-long learning. Co-curricular activities included field trips to industries; theatre performance (“Proof”); social activities such as Bowling Night and Stress Reliever organized by the WMU Student Chapter of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and Final Exam Study Break; special meetings organized specifically for first-
1-4244-0257-3/06/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE October 28-31, 2006, San Diego, CA 36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S3E-2
Session S3E year students by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and Engineers Week dinner meetings. There were presentations on professional registration, intellectual property, engineering ethics, engineering communications, professional conduct in the workplace, the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia Investigation, and “What Makes Einstein So Smart.” Detailed information on some of these co-curricular activities can be found on the STEP program website: http://www.wmich.edu/cas/step/Fall-2005Activities.htm#Archive. Students can choose from a menu of co-curricular activities to participate in. They are encouraged to write about four activities that they can submit for bonus points in Technical Communication. A standing task force representing all the CEAS departments meets twice annually to plan the topics of the presentations for all students, including first-year students, to review participation, and to make adjustments. PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR ALL STEP LEARNING COMMUNITIES 1. Core Courses Successful Completion Rates (a) Mathematics Successful Completion Rate -- The successful completion rates (Grade C or higher; withdrawn is considered not successful) of the STEP Learning Community students are summarized and compared with all STEM students in Table II below: TABLE II COMPARISON OF MATH SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION RATES Math Course Fall 2004 Fall 2005 Fall 2005 STEP Learning Community** Algebra II 78.5% 76.6% 76.3% (59) Pre-Calculus 65.2% 70.5% 78.7% (90) (330) (325) Calculus I* 75.1% 78.9% 58.3% (12) (185) (114) Calculus I for N.A. 65.5% (84) 73.7% (95) Science/Engineering
* Included a section for Lee Honors College students. ** Success rate for 10 Learning Community students placed into Calculus II is 80%; 100% for 2 students placed into Calculus III; 50% for 4 students placed into Algebra I; and 50% for 2 students placed into Mathematics with Application for Imaging majors. Students enrolled in the STEP Learning Communities appear to perform somewhat better in Pre-Calculus and Calculus I for Science and Engineering and about the same in Algebra II. Because of the small number of students enrolled in the regular Calculus I, the successful completion rate can be greatly skewed by one or two students’ results. (b) Other 1st Semester Core Courses Successful Completion Rate -- The successful completion rate in General Chemistry I in Fall Semester 2005 for 142 STEP Learning Community participants is 54.6%. (Of those students with grades
