2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

As engineering education evolves to meet the demands of the 21st century, educators are increasingly focusing on creating more interactive and engaging environments for their students. The Engineering+ program at Oregon State University exemplifies this approach by combining traditional lectures with small-group studios and socially relevant projects. Previous research indicates that students' engagement correlates directly with academic progress. This is especially relevant in the Engineering+ setting, where students are in the process of choosing their majors and planning their futures. Students take three courses on varying topics to explore their interests and practice fundamental engineering skills during their first year. Therefore, enhancing student engagement in these courses not only aids in a deeper understanding of the offered materials but also facilitates social interactions that can inform better decision-making for their futures." This study aims to develop a reliable and valid scale for assessing Resources, Self-Assessment, and Constructive Engagement in Engineering+ courses. The decision to measure these particular constructs is based on an in-depth qualitative study to understand how and why students engage in their engineering courses. Established procedures were implemented for scale development, including construct definition, item pool generation, measurement format, a comprehensive overview of the item pools, and scale validation procedures. An item pool was created based on a comprehensive review of previous literature. The survey was administered, and 1634 responses were collected. This paper reports on the processes and findings of the scale development. Regarding the scale's validity, multiple iterations of the survey were implemented to gather supporting evidence. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the scale's factor structure, substantiating five key factors related to our three main ideas: Educator Availability, External Resources, and Student Connectivity are based on Resources, Course knowledge, which covers constructive engagement, and Self-Assessment. These factors align closely with the unique pedagogical approach of the Engineering+ program and our qualitative study, fostering engagement and development. This study contributes to the existing body of research by providing a validated tool for assessing important constructs related to engagement in Engineering courses, thereby enabling educators to gain valuable insights to inform effective instructional strategies.