2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this work-in-progress empirical research paper, we assess the quality of an interview protocol for capturing students’ sense of community and engineering identity as part of a larger, longitudinal mixed-methods project exploring junior and senior-level engineering students’ sense of belonging and wellbeing while working on engineering co-op experiences. Iron Range Engineering (IRE) is an upper division, practice-based education engineering program where students complete their engineering degrees while working in paid engineering co-ops and earning credit for the technical, design, and professionalism experience gained on these co-ops. IRE students typically complete their lower division coursework at community colleges, where tuition is more affordable, join IRE on-campus or remotely for one semester, and then complete their last four semesters while on paid co-op experiences. IRE students have extensive mentorship from both faculty academic advisors and learning coaches, who are engineers with industry experience, as well as formal and informal opportunities for peer mentorship.

Engineering belonging has been shown to impact students’ academic progress and persistence in engineering. This project builds on existing work on engineering identity and belonging and expands it to low-income, high-achieving students at a practice-based engineering program that supports access to a financially responsible engineering degree. Preliminary work has identified imposter syndrome as a key concern for IRE students’ feelings of belongingness while on co-op.

Six junior-level engineering students were interviewed after they had completed their first semester on paid engineering co-ops. Interviews followed a semi-structured interview protocol asking about engineering identity (i.e. “Does engineering feel like a good fit for you? Why or Why not?”), engineering belonging (i.e. “What experiences have you had that you feel may contribute to feelings of belonging in engineering?”), the effect of co-op experiences on those feelings of belonging (i.e. “Has the co-op experience or job-search process affected your feelings of belonging in engineering, and if so how?”), and connections more broadly to overall well-being (“What connections, if any, have your feelings of belongingness influenced your overall well-being?”).

This interview protocol was adapted from a research project with similar goals, but on a different population. As such, it will be beneficial to assess if the interview protocol that was developed is achieving the goals of identifying students’ feeling of belonging and the connection to overall well-being while on co-op experiences at the start of this six-year study. These interviews were analyzed using directed content analysis for initial thematic results and using the IQRT (Interview Quality Reflection Tool), which provides a structured approach for the researchers to assess the goal of the interview question and if the goal was achieved based on the interview responses. Results include initial thematic descriptions and an updated interview protocol for use in the larger study.