2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This research paper demonstrates our use of a typological approach to analyzing student engagement data. The typological approach aims to identify a range of student types based on the data measuring selected experiences, thus potentially uncovering inequality issues in student engagement research. In this study, we used two sets of institutional data that were collected in spring 2017 and 2020 from first and senior engineering students of a comprehensive Canadian university, by linking the National Survey of Student Engagement data to academic and co-curricular information. Our analysis identified four student types: highly engaged, moderately engaged, externally engaged, and disengaged. This typology was more associated with two self-reported learning outcomes (perceived gains in professional skills and perceived gains in technical skills) than objective learning outcomes (retention in the second year, graduation within five years, and academic performance measured by CGPA). One distinctive student type was the Externally Engaged learners, who constituted a small proportion but deserve attention as they were more likely to have marginalized life situations than students in other types. In light of the framework of constructive typology, our analyses offer insights on three inter-related themes: engagement-based student typology, equity and diversity in a student typology, and student typology as a constructed type.