2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Bridging the Great Divide: A Strategy for How Online Graduate Students Can Participate and Enhance the Education of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

In the current landscape dominated by virtual education, a distinctive opportunity arises to enrich the learning and experiences of undergraduate (UG) students. This enhancement stems from collaborative engagement with on-campus and online graduate students who, without the presence of online programs prioritizing their integration, would be unable to contribute. This collaborative approach allows UG students to glean insights from a more diverse and comprehensive range of graduate students, fostering relationships that might otherwise remain unrealized.

In the context of fostering collaborative relationships between graduate and UG students, implementing an innovative-based learning (IBL) program serves as a catalyst for synergy. The IBL program involves interdisciplinary projects that require collaboration between graduate and undergraduate students. These projects provide opportunities for innovation, addressing real-world problems, and leveraging the diverse skills of each student. The exchange of ideas becomes a reciprocal process, enriching the learning experience for all involved. This program facilitates knowledge transfer and strengthens the bonds between diverse student groups by integrating innovative educational approaches. With the addition of integrating online graduate students, an IBL program can provide a more diverse and well-rounded group of graduate students to participate in the enhancement of the learning experience of undergraduate students. However, online graduate students face unique challenges in fostering relationships with in-person undergraduates, such as time zone differences, technology, building personal connections, and the potential for miscommunication.

This research aims to assess graduate students' value in enhancing undergraduate students' learning through collaborative projects in an IBL program. Additionally, this research analyzes how this model empowers graduate students to play a pivotal role in helping UG students hone skills. Lastly, the research analyzes perceived challenges online graduate students face when trying to foster relationships with UG students when teaching skills. To accomplish this, two surveys were given to UG or graduate students in an IBL program to assess UG's perceived growth in skills and value of graduate students and the challenges online students face in fostering growth in UG students.

Analysis of responses found that while UG students value graduate students in their project groups, graduate students are only able to foster growth in freshman UG students and not in sophomores or juniors. This inability to foster growth in sophomore and junior UG students may be because graduate students are not interacting with these UG students in a way that fosters growth. Additionally, analysis of the results found that, generally, online students only feel they face one challenge when trying to teach undergraduate students new skills. This paper proposes a strategy for how online graduate students can overcome this challenge and enhance the learning experience of UG students. Additionally, this paper proposes additional recommendations on how to foster growth more effectively in areas found ineffective by the analysis.

This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on mentorship in higher education by presenting a blueprint to optimize graduate student interaction with UG students to foster growth across the digital-physical divide, emphasizing the potential for online graduate students to emerge as successful mentors. The findings underscore their ability to bridge geographical disparities in higher education and foster rich collaboration in various learning environments for all students.