2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this work-in-progress paper, we will present preliminary data, student feedback, and lessons learned from a pilot implementation of a mandatory, extracurricular workshop assignment in a large, multi-disciplinary first-year engineering course. Social belonging, connection, and interaction with peers have been identified as critical factors for the retention of students in engineering and other STEM programs. Dropout rates are highest in the first and second year among STEM students, making targeted interventions and activities that serve to increase students’ sense of connection and belonging critical during this timeframe. Participation in extracurricular student organizations is one such activity that has been shown to increase student connection through direct engagement with peers. Involvement in these organizations also allows students to gain relevant professional skills, develop their engineering identity, and solve hands-on problems. Despite the benefits of participation in student-organizations, less than 50% of students in our first-year engineering course have historically chosen to attend a club meeting during their first semester. Further, many of our student organizations in the engineering college have struggled to fully recover after the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and continue to experience low engagement from students and unsustainable membership numbers. Our motivation for the incorporation of mandatory workshops, developed and led by student organizations, is two-fold: first, we intend to increase the percentage of first-year students engaged with student clubs by lowering the barrier to entry and motivating students to attend; and second, we wish to increase the visibility of various student organizations to assist in their post-pandemic recovery.

During the fall 2024 semester, we collaborated with nine engineering clubs to develop six out-of-class workshops for students in our first-year engineering course. Workshop options were presented by club officers during a lecture period, and students were asked to self-select into one of the six workshops. Workshop topics ranged from competitive hands-on activities to seminars led by industry professionals. Clubs were provided with a small amount of funding for supplies. After attending their selected workshop, students completed a written summary assignment, worth approximately 5% of their final course grade, detailing what they accomplished at the workshop, their overall perceptions of the workshop experience, and how the content related to their professional development and goals. In the full paper, we will present summarized qualitative results from this written assignment, as well as quantitative results comparing participation in student organizations for the fall 2024 semester to participation during previous semesters. In addition, we will present data on students’ overall sense of belonging and connection, collected during an annual first-year experience survey, and compare this to fall 2023 data from students in the same first-year course. We anticipate that mandatory participation in the extracurricular workshops will increase the percentage of first-year students with ongoing engagement in clubs, and will have a positive impact on students’ connection with their peers and sense of belonging in the engineering college. Additionally, we will present challenges and lessons learned during the pilot implementation to reduce barriers for others wishing to implement similar programs in first-year courses.