2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Student Persistence in Engineering Majors: A Description of Engineering Students at Two Universities before and during COVID-19

Presented at Student Experiences and Development – Session 1

This work-in-progress study will examine the impact of COVID-19 on sophomore to junior year and junior to senior year engineering students’ persistence and whether their persistence varies by gender, financial need, and race/ethnicity— thus extending our prior work that examined the impact of COVID-19 on first-year student persistence to their sophomore year (Authors, 2022). Specifically, we will use social capital theory as the lens to examine student persistence prior to and during COVID-19 disruptions. The study will leverage institutional data to examine persistence rates prior to and during COVID-19 at a large Hispanic serving institution (HSI) in the Southwest and a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) also in the Southwest. Specifically, we will follow four cohorts of students (approximately 3500 students per cohort at the HSI and approximately 400 students per cohort at the HBCU) for three semesters: (a) fall 2018 sophomore students, (b) fall 2019 sophomore students, (c) fall 2018 junior students, and (d) fall 2019 junior students. The sophomore and junior students’ persistence will be tracked over a period of three semesters – thus the pre-COVID-19 cohorts (i.e., fall 2018 cohorts) did not have their education disrupted over this time frame (fall 2018 to fall 2019) by COVID-19 while the COVID-19 cohorts (i.e., fall 2019 cohorts) did have their education disrupted in spring 2020. We will compare persistence rates using descriptive statistics of students from the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 cohorts. Because of the size of the sample, we will be able to break down the results further by gender, financial need, and race/ethnicity. This study represents the preliminary descriptive analyses for a planned study that will examine persistence during COVID-19 using a survival analysis. Extending our prior study of first-year to second-year persistence in engineering, this paper will seek to answer the following research questions: (1) What impact did the COVID-19 pandemic have on the persistence of undergraduate engineering students at the two universities? (2) Do demographic variables (i.e., gender, financial need, and race/ethnicity) of engineering students differentially relate to their persistence pre- and mid-COVID-19 at the two universities? The results will be situated in the existing literature, recommendations will be made for further research, and implications will be discussed.

Authors

Dr. Karen E. Rambo-Hernandez http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-8107-2898 Texas A&M University [biography]

Karen E. Rambo-Hernandez is an associate professor at Texas A & M University in the College of Education and Human Development in the department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture and Educational Psychology. In her research, she is interested in the assessing the impact of STEM interventions on student psychosocial processes and persistence.
Olukayode E. Apata Texas A&M University [biography]

Olukayode Apata is a PhD student specializing in Educational Psychology, focusing on Research, Measurement, and Statistics. His research interests include STEM Education and HIV Education among minority youths.
Mr. Syahrul Amin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0548-832X Texas A&M University [biography]

Syahrul Amin is a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at Texas A&M University. He is Experienced in conducting numerous STEM education research projects and skilled in working in collaborative environments to collect and evaluate research data for a variety of STEM education projects. He is also experienced in K-16 for over 8 years. His research interests focus on science education, engineering education, GT education, and international teacher education programs.
Mr. Blaine Austin Pedersen Texas A&M University [biography]

Blaine is currently a graduate student earning his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Research, Measurement, and Statistics at Texas A&M. His research is primarily focused on issues of equity in STEM education.
Camille S. Burnett Prairie View A&M University [biography]

Camille S. Burnett, Ph.D., ACUE, is Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education and Director of the SMaRTS (Science, Mathematics, Reading, Technology, and Social Studies) Curriculum Resource Lab in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Prairie View A&M University. She has almost 20 years of combined experience in the K-12 and higher education settings. She is also the principal investigator for funded capacity-building projects to enhance her institution's infrastructure for STEM teacher preparation. Her current research focuses on high school students’ understandings of mathematical functions, STEM education and teacher preparation, and best practices in teaching.
Dr. Bimal P. Nepal Texas A&M University [biography]

Bimal P. Nepal, Ph.D. is a Rader I Endowed Professor of Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. His research areas include distribution and supply chain management, manufacturing, and engineering education. He has authored over 110 research articles in refereed journals and peer-reviewed proceedings in these areas. He has received several teaching and research honors and awards within and outside Texas A&M University. He is a Fellow of ASEM, a professional member of INFORMS, ASEM, ASEE, and a senior member of IISE.
Dr. Noemi V. Mendoza Diaz http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1215-1554 Texas A&M University [biography]

Dr. Mendoza is a faculty member of Technology Management in the College of Education-Engineering at Texas A&M University. She has worked as electrical engineering professor in Mexico. She recently obtained funds from NSF to investigate enculturation to engineering and computational thinking in engineering students. She is the co-advisor of the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers and advisor of Latinos in Engineering and Science at TAMU and is interested in computing engineering education and Latinx engineering studies.

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