2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Preparing Students to Thrive in Industry: The Critical Role of a Learning Coach

Presented at Cooperative and Experiential Education Division (CEED) Technical Session 3

Iron Range Engineering is an upper-division undergraduate engineering program where students recruited from across the nation spend their last five semesters in experiential and co-op-based learning. One of those five semesters is a preparatory semester (named Bell Academy), where students have just completed their first two years of undergraduate engineering education and have not yet transitioned into full-time engineering co-op work. Students develop their technical, design, and professionalism knowledge and skills during that preparatory semester in order to thrive in their upcoming work experiences. While students are in their full-time co-ops, they are also full-time students, completing their courses in the evening. All learning activities are facilitated to accommodate faculty, staff, and students who are scattered throughout the nation.

The Iron Range Engineering team consists of both faculty and staff members. The faculty members in the program are Ph.D.-holding, tenure-track professors. Within the staff group, there is a unique role called a facilitator. Facilitators all hold bachelor’s and/or master’s degrees in engineering and have industry experience. In traditional academic spaces, the support of students’ development as engineers is shouldered primarily by professors, which does not always address the development of the whole student. The role of a facilitator includes providing support to students from the moment they express interest in the program, throughout their education, and beyond. This role provides successful strategies for a positive student experience in the program. Facilitators guide students through the program assisting with career development, life coaching, community building, continuous improvement, and more. The purpose of this paper is to frame the critical nature of a facilitator’s role, specifically as a learning coach. This will be accomplished by analyzing the perspective of five current facilitators, all of whom have participated in the same program before the facilitator role was developed. The paper finishes with lessons learned and recommendations for implementing similar practices, regardless of program type.

Authors

Dr. Darcie Christensen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5061-4663 Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Dr. Darcie Christensen is a probationary Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrated Engineering at Minnesota State University Mankato. She teaches for Bell Engineering, which is a subset of Iron Range Engineering on the Mesabi Range College Campus. Dr. Christensen received her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Utah State University in the Summer of 2021. The title of her Dissertation is “A Mixed-Method Approach to Explore Student Needs for Peer Mentoring in a College of Engineering.” Darcie holds a Master of Engineering degree in Environmental Engineering (2019) and Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Engineering (2017), both from Utah State University. She is passionate about student success and support, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Alexander Steven Victor Krummi
Arynn J. Lorentz Iron Range Engineering [biography]

Arynn Lorentz is a facilitator at the Iron Range Engineering Program, a part of the Integrated Engineering Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato, on the Minnesota North-Mesabi Range College Campus in Virginia, MN. Arynn received her Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a focus in Mechanical Engineering from Minnesota State University, Mankato, through Iron Range Engineering in the Spring of 2020. She is passionate about empowering students to become the professional engineers they want to be.
Cody Mann Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Working with Minnesota State University, Mankato to deliver an innovative, co-op-based engineering education program called the Iron Range Engineering Bell Program. Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree through Iron Range Engineering - Minnesota State University, Mankato, and a Master of Engineering degree through the University of Minnesota Duluth
Kaitlyn Mann [biography]

Kaitlyn Mann is a facilitator for Iron Range Engineering, a program within the Department of Integrated Engineering at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Kaitlyn received her Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2017. She strives to support and guide students throughout their education so they can be highly successful in their professional careers.
Mr. Andrew Lillesve Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Andrew Lillesve is originally from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's degree in Business Administration both from Michigan Technological University. Since 2011, he has worked at Iron Range Engineering, a program under the Integrated Engineering Department at Minnesota State University Mankato. There, he has held the roles of Coordinator, Project Mentor, Facilitator and Learning Coach, Adjunct Faculty, and Director of Operations.

Download paper (1.96 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session