2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

WIP: Reducing the Failure and Dropout Rate for an Introductory Circuits Course
In this work-in-progress paper, we analyze how changes to our introductory circuits course significantly decreased our dropout and failure rate in the course. Our large, western, four-year, public research institution assesses departments and colleges by their “DEWI” rate, which represents D grades, E grades (called F at many other universities), Withdrawals, and Incompletes. Our introductory circuits course in electrical and computer engineering was regularly flagged as one of the highest DEWI rates in the college of engineering with an average DEWI rate of 33% over the last eight years. Therefore, our department embarked on a journey to create an introductory sequence that better supported our students. We slowed down the introductory sequence and organized it so students could start in the sequence without calculus, while keeping an accelerated version for the more advanced students. For the very first circuits class we also reduced class size and moved to a studio classroom where lab work and class work were combined. Our first cohort of 178 students entered in Fall 2025, and we had another cohort of 77 students this spring. Both terms we had record low dropout and failure rates. Our average DEWI rate dropped from 33% to 13%, which is statistically significant. We will continue monitoring future terms to make sure this trend continues.