2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This complete evidence-based practice paper describes the design, implementation, and outcomes of a “first -year program discussion forum” in which first-year engineering faculty and advisors, disciplinary-specific faculty and advisors, and College of Engineering administrators discussed the purpose, challenges, and outcomes of a common first-year engineering program.

First-year engineering programs and courses come in many shapes and sizes, but share the common goal of aiding in students’ transition into a degree-granting engineering program. One model of first-year engineering program is a common first-year experience in which all engineering students, regardless of engineering major, enroll in a common course or sequence of courses and upon completion matriculate into degree-specific programs. This model is used at a large, public, southeastern university in the United States. The College of Engineering at this institution has 14 degree-granting programs which have diverse needs and expectations of student preparedness upon completion of the common first-year experience and their entry into their major. However, communication between the first-year program and degree-granting departments regarding this critical responsibility has been less frequent and formal than some stakeholders would prefer. Recent efforts within this first-year engineering program to update the learning outcomes of its first-year courses to serve the needs of all program stakeholders highlighted the necessity of consulting with other departments in the College to ensure a revision process aligned with the expectations and needs of all stakeholders (students, degree-granting programs, etc.). This prompted the organization and facilitation of a forum with representatives from all departments and various student-serving positions in the College to discuss the work and aims of the first-year engineering program. This first-year forum, which took place in Spring 2024, had two primary goals: 1) communicate and compare the current outcomes and pedagogical strategies of the first-year program with attendees’ perceptions and preconceptions; 2) brainstorm ideas to align first-year program efforts with other degree-granting programs’ curricular needs; and 3) to start conversations leading to continued collaboration about how the first-year program is situated within the college's curricula.

While the forum’s outcomes found that degree-granting departments’ perceptions of the first-year program were mostly positive, their knowledge of the program’s purpose and learning objectives were partial or incomplete. Attendees appreciated gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the first-year engineering programs, engaging in discussion that brought to light the sometimes disparate and conflicting expectations across 14 degree-granting majors for the first-year program, and learning about what is covered and emphasized with first-year students prior to them entering their disciplinary programs. Feedback received during the forum will be used to inform updates of course learning outcomes as well as the ongoing development of additional classroom activities, problem sets, design prompts, etc. that more equitably represent the various disciplines available for students to choose and pursue in the College of Engineering.

At the end of the forum, attendees agreed on the need to make this a regular event, potentially every other year, to foster ongoing interdepartmental communication and collaboration. Prior informal conversations and anecdotal evidence hinted at a communication gap resulting in an unclear understanding of what students in first-year engineering do. The development and implementation of this first-year forum highlighted the need for continued communication and collaboration with the various stakeholders in degree-granting departments most closely related to the first-year program (e.g., second-year engineering instructors, disciplinary academic advisors, etc.). This collaboration will help ensure constructive alignment between the updated first-year program learning outcomes and the curricula of the engineering departments students move into upon successful completion of the first-year program.