2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 120/Lessons Learned: "I Can’t Build It Because They Won’t Come": Faculty Survey Response Rates in Engineering Education Research

Presented at Faculty Development Division (FDD) Poster Session

Obtaining faculty perspectives to enhance higher education teaching practices is an essential step in assessing and planning professional development and training. However, procuring this crucial feedback can often feel like an insurmountable challenge. In a recent research study aimed at gathering faculty feedback through an anonymous online survey, a notable revelation emerged – faculty members exhibit reluctance to participate in surveys. The question that arises is, how can we gain an understanding of the collective faculty perspective for professional development initiatives?

Through quantitative analysis and insights drawn from the data collection process, the study unearthed some limitations during survey recruitment. It suggests that exploring changes in recruitment methods may be necessary to increase faculty participation. The aim of this paper is to understand potential barriers to faculty participation by examining response rates from a recent study conducted by the authors and propose changes that could potentially increase response rates for future studies. To achieve this, the study design and response rate outcomes are examined, followed by suggestions for modifications in survey recruitment.

Authors

Dr. Rachel Ziminski http://orcid.org/0009-0006-1806-3925 University of Massachusetts, Lowell [biography]

Rachel Ziminski recently received her Ph.D. in the Leadership in Education program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her research interests include engineering education, faculty influence on student persistence, faculty teaching preparation and creating an environment of continuous learning in higher education. Her current research focuses on faculty influence on underrepresented minority student persistence in engineering education. Rachel has served in various administrative and leadership positions in academic affairs and student affairs at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, MIT and Wentworth Institute of Technology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Bentley University and a master’s degree in administration of higher education from Suffolk University.
Dr. Yanfen Li http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-9465-7147 University of Massachusetts, Lowell [biography]

Dr. Yanfen Li is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2018. Dr. Li has extensive experience in engineering education focusing on recruitment and retention of underrepresented and under resourced students and engineering pedagogy. Her work spans the areas of curriculum instruction and design, program design and evaluation, and the first-year college experience. Dr Li’s research group aims to further the development of a diverse workforce in engineering and STEM. She is the PI of a NSF Scholarship in STEM grant aimed at supporting high achieving, low-income students to complete their bachelor’s degrees and continue on to graduate school. She has received several teaching awards including the UMass Lowell Award for Excellence in Innovative Teaching in 2021 and the Biomedical Engineering Teaching Award from the American Society for Engineering Education in 2021.

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