2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Work-in-Progress paper describes an effort to support first-year engineering students by connecting them with other students and providing a space to discuss the relationship between their first-year design course and life beyond the course. The engineering design course allows students to work on a real-world project and exposes them to a broad range of ideas and skills that are important in engineering. Many of these – such as communication, planning, teamwork, prioritization, and dealing with failure – are also very relevant to life beyond engineering. “Connections” is an optional supplement to this required design course that engineering students take during their first semester.

A small group of students in the first-year design course meets weekly during the semester in a gathering informally named “Connections.” This group is facilitated by a faculty member but is largely driven by the students. Since students in the Connections group come from several different sections of the first-year design course, they are exposed to other students going through a similar experience but with important differences in their experiences. For example, members of Connections are not part of the same project group and are working on different projects. Most members of Connections belong to different sections of the first-year design course and have different instructors for the course. Discussions in the group cover a wide range of topics. Examples include project-specific updates and requests for help; sharing frustrations and joys about the course and the overall first-year experience; questions about registering for classes, selecting a major, and interacting with faculty members; and broader updates and discussions on life in general. The facilitator typically suggests a possible theme or topic for each weekly discussion (often related to something going on in the first-year design course at that time), but this is only a suggested starting point and the discussion often moves to other topics.

Connections is now in its second year. Participants have particularly appreciated the opportunity for honest conversations about shared experiences. Future opportunities with the Connections group include (1) connecting students across multiple years and (2) more formally surveying participants about the benefits of participating in the group and potential areas for growth and improvement.