2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Per ASEE FPD guidelines, this paper is the type Complete Paper: Evidence-Based Practice. This paper assesses a peer mentoring program in a school of engineering. Building upon the first wave of data in a previous study, the current study analyzes the third year of the program. The current analysis identifies program changes, describes their rationale, and assesses their impact on student retention rates. There are four contributions to this approach. First, the paper contributes evidence regarding an engineering education practice: peer mentoring. Second, the paper builds upon data collected across three cohorts of program implementation and reported in a series of publications, the former of which inform this analysis. Third, the current analysis attempts to identify which factors were changed between each wave of data. More generally, this project contributes to broader understanding of first-year students and their supportive contexts.

Program Rationale: Peer mentoring has been found to be integral to student success and retention. For example, support from peers can enhance student wellbeing and improve self-efficacy. Hosting a peer mentoring program also could symbolize institutional support. Informed by this evidence, a peer mentor program was developed within a school of engineering based in a small, private university within a large metropolitan area.

Program Goals: A primary goal of the program was to improve student retention by providing students with social belonging, a key aspect of the retention process. The expectation is that the peer mentoring program facilitates a community context in which first-year students can gain a sense of belonging. Peer mentoring can have bidirectional benefits for students.

Program Details: Since Fall 2022, a peer mentoring program has been implemented in three academic years: Program Year 1 (2022-2023), Program Year 2 (2023-2024), Program Year 3 (2024-2025). All first-year students are required to participate in the peer mentor program. Each peer mentor is assigned to approximately 10 first-year students. The mentors meet and connect with students, helping them to connect with the campus and engineering school community. Peer mentors are available to answer any questions the students may have, though this is distinct from a separate tutoring activity.

Program Changes: Slight modifications were made to the program each year. The broader project previously analyzed initial program results (PY1, PY2). Learning from prior evidence-based practices [1-2], the current analysis sought to limit the number of changed variables at a single point in time toward better assessing their impact. The main changes made between PY2, PY3 of the program include changing: (1) meeting frequency, (2) meeting mode (virtual option), (3) funding for mentor events, and (4) program expectations. Peer mentors who register for the leadership course are required to plan a school-wide social event and/or a school-wide service event. Effects of these changes are reported via longitudinal analysis of retention data across three years, and a Sankey Chart is used to visualize the flow of students through the program.

Study Design: The over-time design of the larger study that informs the current analysis lessens potential for self-selection effects in the results. Since selection effects are present within the initial cohort of entering students, and the changes over time are compared to the same cohort at an earlier point in time, the potential for unmeasured variables is to some degree lessened. Though eliminating self-selection effects is not possible, attempts are made to collect evidence that informs educational practices based upon different cohorts of students entering each year.

Future Studies: A similar program was also expanded across campus to a different unit. As such, the implications of implementing a similar program design within different departments across campus will be examined in a future study that builds upon this larger peer mentoring project.