2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The purpose of this research paper is to understand the impact of an interdisciplinary project-based first-year engineering and computing course sequence on students’ development of engineering/computing identity and sense of belonging in these disciplines.

Developing an identity as an engineer or computer scientist, and developing a sense of belonging in these fields, are critical for student retention and success. Recent research on why undergraduates leave STEM disciplines confirms earlier findings, which showed that many students who leave do so for reasons that are unrelated to meeting the intellectual demands of STEM disciplines. For many students, particularly women and minoritized individuals, issues related to climate, lack of fit, and a lack of developing an engineering identity early in their matriculation can be significant drivers of attrition from technical fields. Previous research suggests that project-based learning builds students’ engineering/computing identity by piquing and developing student interest in engineering topics. Literature on the sense of belonging in engineering suggests that experiencing camaraderie within course-based teams, and particularly having a clear purpose or role within the team, can promote that sense of belonging. The current research project sought to implement evidence-based practices to enhance first-year students’ identity and sense of belonging in engineering and computing, in the context of a two-semester introductory course sequence that integrates students from across all engineering and computing majors within the college of engineering and computing at an undergraduate-focused national public university in the Midwest. The goal of the study is to assess the effects of the new first year-course sequence on students’ identity as engineers/computer scientists and students’ sense of belonging in engineering and computing disciplines.

The two-semester course sequence was implemented in pilot form in Fall 2022/Spring 2023. Research methods were reviewed and approved by the university’s institutional review board. A subset of entering first-year students were randomly selected for enrollment in the pilot course sections, and the remaining entering first-year students were enrolled in the existing department-specific introductory engineering or computing courses that have traditionally served incoming engineering and computing students in their respective disciplines. Published survey instruments were used to assess engineering/computing identity and sense of belonging for students in the pilot course sequence and the traditional course sequence. Surveys were administered at the start of the fall semester, at the end of fall semester, and at the conclusion of the spring semester. There were a total of 301 respondents for the pre-course survey, 97 respondents for the mid-point survey, and 235 respondents for the final survey. Responses were de-identified and student identities were protected. Pseudo-IDs were generated to enable analysis of changes in individual student responses over time. Data analysis is underway. Administered survey instrument responses will be analyzed using mixed model analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques, with track (traditional vs project-based, 2 levels) as a between-subjects effect and stage (start of year, midyear, end of year) as a within-subjects effect. Gender and ethnic identity may also be used as controlling factors.

The authors anticipate that the students participating in the pilot course sequence will show greater gains in identity and sense of belonging in engineering and computing disciplines, as compared to students who participated in the traditional course sequence. Qualitative survey responses suggest that students in the pilot course valued the design/build projects that applied technical concepts, receiving encouragement from professors, and contributing their own knowledge to the work of the team. Future work will quantify the impact of the pilot course sequence on retention and further investigate the implications of the interdisciplinary nature of the course on student team dynamics and identity development.