2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Enrollment statistics at a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) reveal that the number of students enrolled in Electrical Engineering (EE) graduate studies is considerably lower than those in undergraduate studies. This HSI enrolls a large Latinx and multicultural diverse student population. The apparent socio-economic conditions and educational equalities pose a challenge for this minority population to pursue graduate studies. After the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a notable shift towards hybrid and blended learning models. These approaches offer a combination of scheduled class sessions and self-paced classwork [1], providing students greater flexibility and agency in their learning. This is particularly beneficial for students who may face socio-economic or family-related challenges, as it allows them to adapt their learning to their individual circumstances. Therefore, the study’s purpose is to examine innovative approaches through mixed-reality (MR) spaces to improve learning and increase belonging among EE students at an HSI. Our long-term research agenda focuses on enhancing social learning among students, teaching assistants, and instructors, while also promoting collaboration using MR among learning community members.

Two research questions guided this study:
What are the existing learning community issues at this particular HSI?
How can these problems be addressed through a mixed-reality (MR) learning community platform?

To answer these questions, we take a multiple-sources qualitative research approach. First, we utilized participatory design (PD) methodology [2] in three two-hour sessions including activities such as storyboarding with focus group discussions, low-fidelity prototyping, and role-playing. Second, we interviewed EE students focusing on their socio-academic and learning community experiences. Nine students participated in the PD sessions, and five students participated in the interviews with an average length of thirty minutes per interview. Student participants were undergraduate juniors/seniors, and graduate students, some of them were non-traditional students. We conducted an inductive qualitative analysis from the sessions and interviews and triangulated the data from both sources.

Preliminary findings showed issues and challenges that EE students experience throughout their academic journeys preventing them from benefiting from peers’ collaboration and use of educational technological innovations. The first theme found existing learning community issues included a need for fostering a supportive and inclusive community. On this topic, Yamileth (pseudonym) a senior EE student mentioned,

"People that I started with have graduated because I had to go slower by taking a class here and there. I don't have the same group of friends … not everyone wants to do study groups, which is a little frustrating. So I end up mostly studying by myself."

Yamileth reflected on the lack of a supportive network that could make their engineering journey easier. A second theme identified the need for innovative technology integration in the EE community. In this regard, participants shared their vision for an MR platform that could include academic and social activities, a fair representation of themselves in the system, and navigational skills to deal with multiple learning technologies. Implications of this work consist of informing our existing efforts in designing technologies for supporting inclusive learning communities that other researchers can replicate in similar educational settings.

References
[1] Rodriguez, A. (2020). Do hybrid classes offer the best of both world. CU Denver News. Retrieved December, 25, 2021.
[2] Muller, M. J., & Kuhn, S. (1993). Participatory design. Communications of the ACM, 36(6), 24-28.