2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In response to high failure rates of engineering students in introductory math courses such as calculus, a wide variety of interventions have been implemented. Several of these interventions aim to provide students with resources to help them better learn concepts and get continual support as they complete assignments and other coursework. Despite these initiatives, pass rates continue to remain low. We posit that merely the availability of resources is not enough for student success in mathematics courses. Students who lack knowledge of how to use these resources effectively may not necessarily see significant improvement in their math skills. Often, the resource providers are unaware of how students use different resources. To address this gap, we explore how engineering and engineering technology students incorporate resources into their learning strategies for their calculus courses. We longitudinally collected interview data from 14 engineering and engineering technology students enrolled in an introductory calculus course at an R2 institution in the mid-Atlantic region of the USA. These data were analyzed through thematic analysis of the interviews and Actual Student Study Paths. We found that students broadly followed a learning strategy of three stages: doing problems, checking their answers, then seeking help with these problems. The differences between students’ learning strategies were generally based on the resources they used at each stage. These expand our understanding of how students incorporate resources available to them into their study habits.