VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Lee, Walter C."

Browsing by Author "Lee, Walter C."

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All in a Day's Work: Women Engineering Students' Professional Development in a Living-Learning Community
Nave, Amy Lynn Hermundstad (Virginia Tech, 2018-08-29)
The engineering profession requires engineers who have not only deep technical knowledge but also broad professional competencies necessary to address complex challenges that impact individuals and communities. While engineering students often develop necessary technical competencies during their undergraduate education, professional competencies are often lacking in graduates. This lack of professional development can lead to graduates who are not prepared for the engineering profession and lead to fewer people, particularly individuals from groups historically underrepresented in engineering such as women, entering and continuing in these fields. Due to the rigidity of the engineering curriculum, out-of-class experiences, such as living-learning communities (LLCs), have become important sites for this professional development and can help women explore engineering and learn professional competencies. However, little is known about how these programs support students, particularly in regard to professional development. To further our understanding of these programs, a phenomenographic study was conducted to explore the experiences of 20 students who participated in an LLC for women in engineering. This study examined women's views of professional development in engineering and the experiences within the LLC that could support this development. Following an iterative analysis of interviews, two models were developed: the PD² Model captures women's views of the professional competencies relevant in engineering; and the LEEPD Model captures features of beneficial professional development experiences within the LLC. Combined, these models serve as useful resources for creating beneficial experiences to support women's professional development in engineering education contexts. The PD² Model can help educators intentionally identify outcomes of professional experiences, and the LEEPD Model can help in the design of a variety of experiences that are beneficial for students.
The assessment cycle: Insights from a systematic literature review on broadening participation in engineering and computer science
Holloman, Teirra K.; Lee, Walter C.; London, Jeremi S.; Hawkins Ash, Chanee D.; Watford, Bevlee A. (American Society for Engineering Education, 2021-09-14)
Background: In the field of engineering education, assessment and evaluation have been given insufficient attention as they relate to broadening participation. We posit that this lack of attention negatively impacts our ability to develop and implement sustainable solutions at scale. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore the presence of an assessment cycle in the literature related to broadening participation in engineering. The assessment cycle refers to the process by which assessment/evaluation is planned, enacted, and used to improve educational processes. Scope/Method: The scope of this study was influenced by it being situated in a larger study focused on broadening participation of Black Americans in engineering and computer science. We completed a literature map that illuminated a subset of literature broadly related to assessment/evaluation, and subsequently conducted a systematic literature review of 33 publications reporting on assessment/evaluation efforts. Our analysis of these efforts was grounded in a six-stage assessment cycle. Results: The results of this study highlight common publishing practices related to the assessment cycle in the context of broadening participation. We find that assessment/evaluation is generally published at the program level, focused on student development or academic success as a proxy for program effectiveness, and concentrated on positive claims. Conclusion: There is room to significantly improve how assessment/evaluation information is published. By highlighting productive and unproductive publishing practices related to assessment/evaluation, this research has important implications for the use and publishing of assessment/evaluation, particularly as it relates to broadening participation in engineering.
The Career Goal-Setting Processes of Black Woman Engineering Majors
DeLoach, Adrien D. (Virginia Tech, 2020-06-09)
Despite widespread efforts to reduce inequities in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) job market, huge disparities remain for both African Americans and women in those sectors of employment. Extant literature affirms that Black women encounter various challenges when pursuing STEM careers. More specifically, the research on Black women in engineering focuses primarily on their experiences in academia and does not include their experiences as undergraduates transitioning into the industry workforce. To address these gaps in the literature, this study explored the career goal-setting (CGS) processes of Black woman engineering majors (BWEMs) through qualitative inquiry. Using a phenomenological approach, the researcher implemented a two-interview sequence with five Black/African American women enrolled in their final year of a baccalaureate engineering program at a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the southeast. Possible selves theory (Lee and Oyserman, 2009; Strauss, Griffin, and Parker, 2012) served as the framework for the guiding research questions and interview protocol, which were designed to capture the essence of the participants' experiences as they respectively engaged in setting career goals. The findings revealed that the participants' CGS processes encompassed a series of cognitive steps, which included their thoughts about goal-setting in general, exploring engineering careers, making adjustments academically, finding an area of career specialization, and dealing with anxiety related to the challenges they encountered as engineering majors. In addition, possible selves theory was used to explain how the participants' understanding of their experiences in current contexts influenced who they wanted to become in future work conditions.
Catalyzing Organizational Change for Equity in Graduate Education: A Case Study of Adopting Collective Impact in a College of Engineering
Lee, Walter C.; Holloman, Teirra K.; Knight, David B.; Huggins, Natali; Matusovich, Holly M.; Brisbane, Julia (MDPI, 2024-03-10)
Graduate education in engineering is an extremely challenging, complex entity that is difficult to change. The purpose of this exploratory research paper was to investigate the applicability of the Collective Impact framework, which has been used within community organizing contexts, to organize the change efforts of a center focused on advancing equitable graduate education within engineering. We sought to understand how the conditions of Collective Impact (i.e., common agenda, backbone organization, mutually reinforcing activities, shared measurement system, and continuous communication) could facilitate the organization of equity-focused change efforts across a college of engineering at a single institution. To achieve this, we took an action research approach. We found the Collective Impact framework to be a useful tool for organizing cross-sectional partnerships to facilitate equity-focused change in graduate education; we also found the five conditions of Collective Impact to be applicable to the higher education context, with some intentional considerations and modifications. Through coordinated efforts, the Collective Impact framework can support the goal of reorienting existing decentralized structures, resource flows, and decision processes to foster bottom-up and top-down change processes to advance equitable support for graduate students.
The Change: A Narrative-Informed Case Study Exploring the Tension between Structures and Agency in the Educational Trajectories of Engineering Students from Underserved Backgrounds
Taylor, Ashley R. (Virginia Tech, 2020-02-05)
In the United States context, there is a particularly prevalent dialogue about the transformative power of an engineering degree for underserved students. Long positioned as a mechanism for moving up the social ladder, engineering education is often discussed as a mechanism for upward mobility, promising underserved students the opportunity to climb. However, a critical examination of who enrolls and persists in engineering degree programs suggests not everyone can equitably leverage the transformative power of an engineering degree, with persistent inequities for underserved students. Though literature highlights systemic barriers faced by underserved engineering students, much less is known about how underserved students navigate barriers to pursue an engineering bachelor's degree. Accordingly, the purpose of my study was to explore how students from underserved backgrounds navigate their educational trajectories, focusing on the interplay between structures and agency. Using a Bourdieusian lens, my study was guided by the overarching research question: In their narratives, how do students from underserved backgrounds describe navigating their educational trajectories towards a bachelor's engineering degree? I used a single case study methodology with embedded units of analysis to explore this research question. My primary data sources included narrative interviews with 32 underserved engineering students and geospatial community-level data extrapolated from students' home zip codes. My results indicate that underserved engineering students describe a variety of strategies to enact agency by planning, optimizing, and, at times, redirecting their educational trajectories. This study also highlights the influence of family, community, economic, and political environments on the educational journeys of underserved engineering students, as students described navigating and adapting to these various social environments. Students also describe their environments as dynamic, with trajectories changing based on critical incidents such as a parent illness or loss of work. Lastly, students' narratives highlight a diverse range of reasons for pursuing engineering, which often extended beyond private goods approaches to engineering education. My results present implications for engineering education, the most notable of which is that underserved students are not a monolithic group and represent a diverse range of lived experiences. My results also highlight agency as a collective endeavor, challenging popular notions that agency is operationalized at the level of a single individual. Lastly, students' lived experiences with material hardship highlight the dynamic and multidimensional nature of economic disadvantage. Such insights compel engineering educators to reexamine how we conceptualize and measure economic disadvantage in higher education. Ultimately, this research highlights opportunities to increase access and equity in engineering education for underserved students.
Choice in the Advisor Selection Processes of Doctoral Engineering Programs
Artiles, Mayra S. (Virginia Tech, 2019-09-18)
Research on doctoral student attrition has shown that one of the main reasons for which students do not persist in the Ph.D. is because of a poor relationship with their doctoral advisor. The importance of the advising relationship is especially true in science, math, and engineering degrees because of the science model of advising as the student is the advisor's employee, close collaborator, and apprentice. While much attention has been given to understanding the dynamics of the advising relationship, little attention has been given to on how these relationships commence or the context in which they begin. This study ultimately contributes to understanding the context of the inception of advisor- advisee relationships and how it ultimately relates to both faculty and doctoral student satisfaction. The following overarching research questions guide this dissertation: What are the processes for doctoral students to find advisors in engineering, science, and math? How is this process experienced by faculty and students? To address these questions, I conducted three studies. Through these studies, this dissertation: 1) Identified and described the types of advisor-advisee selection processes that exist in engineering, science, and math and examined trends and patterns across disciplines; 2) compared how two Chemical Engineering programs practice the advisor selection process and examined how faculty and graduate program directors negotiate agency in the process and 3) explored how students experience satisfaction of their basic needs in the advisor selection process of one Chemical Engineering program and examined which student attributes influence this satisfaction of needs. The results showed that there are multiple ways through which a student can find an advisor in science, math, and engineering doctoral program, but these vary widely by both discipline and field of study. The results also showed both students and faculty value the ability to select whom they will work with. However, both groups may also need support in making this decision regarding with whom they will work. Overall, the results of this dissertation highlight the importance of developing practices that balance an individual's need for support and autonomy to improve their satisfaction.
Computing Trajectories: Pathways into Computer Science and Programming Experience in the First Year
Maczka, Darren Kurtis (Virginia Tech, 2019-07-30)
Many universities across the United States have been experiencing an increased demand for computer science majors. Adjusting curriculum to meet increased demand runs the risk of damaging ongoing efforts to broaden participation in computer science. To manage growth, and increase the representation of women and underrepresented minorities in the field, we must first understand current patterns for participation, and factors that may impact access and persistence. Universities with common first-year engineering programs present an opportunity for addressing some of the barriers that have traditionally limited access to computer science to certain groups. In particular, common first-year programs could provide early positive experiences with computer programming which encourage more students to consider computer science as a viable major. To better understand how a common first-year engineering program may impact matriculation and persistence in computer science, I conducted studies to identify high-level patterns of participation in computer science, as well as how students experience programming instruction in an introductory engineering course. All studies share the same context: a large public research institution with a common first-year engineering program. Results indicate that women are leaving computer science at all points of the curriculum, contributing to a reduced representation of women earning CS degrees. In contrast, URM and first-generation students have higher representation at graduation than when declaring major interest before the start of their first year.
Disaggregating the Monolith: A Case Study on Varied Engineering Career Orientations and Strategies of Black Women in Tech
Hall, Janice Leshay (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-08)
Diversifying the engineering workforce has been a national imperative for several decades. The increased participation of Black students in engineering is commonly identified as a crucial area for improvement. Yet, the rates of engineering degree completion are slowing for Black women in particular. In 2015, less than one percent of all U.S. engineering bachelor's degrees were awarded to Black women. To support broadening participation efforts, I use an anti-deficit approach to examine the career orientations and mobility patterns of Black women working in computing and engineering roles in the tech industry. By characterizing the different career motivations, strategies, and points of transition in the careers of a diverse sample of Black women, I sought to disaggregate the Black women's engineering and computing career experiences—particularly as it relates to how and why they move into, around and out of roles in the tech industry. Using a qualitative multi-case study, I conducted a multi-level career mobility analysis on secondary data and user-generated social media artifacts to extend theory on career orientations and talent management to help normalize "non-traditional" career trajectories. The study findings are useful to inform the next generation of Black women interested in tech on the different ways to approach and achieve subjective career success and satisfaction in engineering and computing fields. In this dissertation work, I discuss how the varied insights of Black women's career experiences in tech can be leveraged for practitioners and industry leaders to broaden the participation (e.g., to attract, retain and better support) of students and employees by identifying their career orientations and then using that to inform career preparation and development that aligns with different engineering and computing career outlooks.
Enhancing the Community College Transfer Pathway: Exploring Aspects of Transfer Receptivity at 4-Year Institutions in Engineering
Grote, Dustin Michael (Virginia Tech, 2020-07-07)
Community college transfer pathways may play a critical role in realizing broadened participation in engineering; Community colleges serve as an important access-oriented pathway through the postsecondary system in the United States, and also depend on 4-year institutions to streamline vertical transfer. The extent to which 4-year institutions are receptive to community college transfer as a viable pathway to engineering degrees may play a significant role in its efficacy. This dissertation explores a few aspects of transfer receptivity at 4-year institutions to understand how they relate to the efficacy of vertical transfer pathways in engineering disciplines. The first manuscript is a case study of an articulation agreement partnership between one 4-year institution and two public community college partners. The second manuscript examines how transfer policies and institutional characteristics of 4-year institutions in the U.S. relate to the enrollment, graduation and reporting of transfer students in engineering. I use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies across both manuscripts. The results of these studies revealed that: 1) specific challenges for transfer in engineering suggest that adequate examinations of transfer receptivity need be discipline-specific, 2) institutions encounter dissonance when simultaneously managing aims to increase access and prestige, 3) there is a need for shifts in policy and ranking systems that incentivize increases and improvements in vertical transfer, 4) there is a need for more transparency of transfer-related policies and transfer student data, and 5) our understanding of transfer matriculation remains well ahead of graduation outcomes.
Exploring Instructors' Classroom Test Beliefs and Behaviors in Fundamental Engineering Courses: A Qualitative Multi-Case Study
Chew, Kai Jun (Virginia Tech, 2022-08-23)
Classroom tests are a common and default form of assessments in concept-heavy, fundamental engineering courses. Tests have benefits to learning, such as the testing effect that helps with the retrieval of knowledge, but there are also disadvantages, like discouraging deep learning approaches and decreasing motivation to learn, that warrant examining and questioning why tests are common, which engineering education literature lacks. Furthermore, the advancement of assessment research has led to alternative assessments that can diversify types of assessments and promote intentionality in test usage in these courses, supporting the need for scholarship on understanding test usage. My research began to address this by studying fundamental engineering course instructors' test beliefs and behaviors because engineering instructors have shown to have autonomy in making course decisions and barriers to adopting scholarship-based assessment practices among these engineering instructors persist. This dissertation study, grounded in the Situated Expectancy Value Theory (SEVT), explored, uncovered, and articulated seven fundamental engineering course instructors' test beliefs and behaviors from mechanical engineering and engineering science departments in a public, land-grant, Research 1 institution. Leveraging the case study research methodology from a pragmatic perspective, my multi-case study, with each participant being defined as a case, answered an overarching research question and five sub-research questions that yielded findings on five test aspects: test usage, design, administration, cheating, and fairness. Eight collected data sources in the form of qualitative interviews, course, department, and institution documents became the database to answer the questions. Analyses of these data involved coding and content analysis, and subsequent thematic analysis. The outcome of these analyses shaped the individual case profiles for cross-case analysis to understand belief and behavior patterns at a higher level. My research has found three groups of test usage beliefs. These are enthusiastic test users, default test users, and skeptical test users. All participants featured tests heavily in their courses and justified with learning outcomes and some non-course-content factors like large class sizes for grading conveniences. However, those in default and skeptical test user groups also acknowledged some non-course-content factors, like inertia and peer pressure, that influenced their test usage beliefs and behaviors. All participants acknowledged some disadvantages with tests, but those who are skeptical with test usage presented stronger beliefs about test disadvantages, arguing for the need to move away from tests when necessary. Some participants also presented conflicting beliefs and behaviors regarding their test usage. My study has also found all participants using problem-solving questions, emphasizing the need to curb cheating especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, preferring in-person test administration, and defining test fairness with reasonable completion time and adequate content coverage. These findings contribute to addressing identified research gaps in the literature and have implications for future research on tests with assessment philosophies, classroom practices on diversifying assessments and intentional test usage, and future research on possible assessment roles in addressing systemic inequity in engineering.
Exploring the Interpersonal Relationships of Black Men in Undergraduate Engineering Programs
Boyd-Sinkler, Karis Elisabeth (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-08)
The dilemma of making education an equitable system, especially for minoritized groups, has persisted for centuries. While there have been efforts aimed at decreasing disparities, there is still more work that needs to be done. An often-overlooked population in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is Black men—a group at the nexus of being a gender majority and racial minority. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory research study is to understand how Black men experience interpersonal relationships in undergraduate engineering programs. The overarching research question that guides this study is: What are the qualitatively different aspects of interpersonal relationships experienced by Black men in undergraduate engineering programs? Using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory as a lens and a quasi-phenomenography methodology to understand the variance of the students' relationships, I conducted 14 semi-structured interviews with students who identified as a Black man and were a second-year or higher in their undergraduate engineering program. By examining interpersonal relationships, I clarify the meaningfulness of relationships at one historically Black college and university (N=1) and two historically white institutions (N=13). A total of seven relationship types and ten different ways students described their relationships were identified in the data. Each of the ways students described their relationship was organized on the emergent domains of academic, emotional/mental, financial, professional, social, and spiritual. Students also mentioned five environmental influences that impacted their experiences in engineering. My results indicate that students find value in relationships with people who were relatable, people who could provide insight or knowledge, and people who showed a sense of care or concern for the student. Students also mentioned how environmental influences bear significance on their over experience in engineering. The present study lays the groundwork for holistically examining the interpersonal relationships of Black men in undergraduate engineering programs.
The fallacy of “there are no candidates”: Institutional pathways of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino doctorate earners
Fleming, Gabriella Coloyan; Patrick, Anita D.; Grote, Dustin; Denton, Maya; Knight, David B.; Lee, Walter C.; Borrego, Maura; Murzi, Homero (Wiley, 2023-01)
Background: Despite many initiatives to improve graduate student and faculty diversity in engineering, there has been little or no change in the percentage of people from racially minoritized backgrounds in either of these groups. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this paper is to counter the scarcity fallacy, in which institutions blame the “shortage” of qualified people from traditionally marginalized backgrounds for their own lack of representation, related to prospective PhD students and prospective faculty from traditionally marginalized groups. This study identifies the BS-to-PhD and PhD-to-tenure-track-faculty institutional pathways of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino engineering doctorate recipients. Design/Method: Using the US Survey of Earned Doctorates, we tracked the BS-to-PhD institutional pathways of 3952 Black/African American and 5732 Hispanic/Latino engineering PhD graduates. We also used the Survey of Doctorate Recipients to track the PhD-to-tenure-track faculty pathways of 104 Black/African American and 211 Hispanic/Latino faculty. Results: The majority of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino PhD graduates in this study did not earn their BS degrees from Top 25 institutions, but rather from Not Top 25, non-US, and minority-serving institutions. The results also show the relatively small proportion of PhD earners and faculty members who move into highly ranked institutions after earning a bachelor's degree from outside this set of institutions. Conclusions: The findings of this study have important implications for graduate student and faculty recruitment by illustrating that recruitment from a narrow range of institutions (i.e., Top 25 institutions) is unlikely to result in increased diversity among racially minoritized PhDs and faculty in engineering.
Operationalizing and monitoring student support in undergraduate engineering education
Lee, Walter C.; Hall, Janice L.; Godwin, Allison; Knight, David B.; Verdin, Dina (2021-10-08)
Background Supporting undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been a persistent need. However, assessing the impact of support efforts can prove challenging as it is difficult to operationalize student support and subsequently monitor the combined impacts of the various supports to which students have access simultaneously. Purpose/Hypothesis This paper describes the development of the STEM student perspectives of support instrument (STEM-SPSI) and explores how perceptions of student support constructs vary across engineering students. Design/Method Following best practices for instrument development, forming the STEM-SPSI consisted of an iterative cycle of feedback from various STEM stakeholders and two rounds of pilot testing with students at multiple institutions. We employed factor analysis to identify student-support constructs and conduct validation procedures on the instrument. Results Results suggest that student support can be conceptualized as a combination of 12 constructs. The STEM-SPSI can help engineering educators evaluate their student-support mechanisms at an academic-unit level. Conclusions The practical contribution of the STEM-SPSI is to assist colleges in monitoring the extent to which their portfolio of support mechanisms is perceived as helpful by undergraduate students. This work makes a theoretical contribution to the model of cocurricular support that undergirds the instrument by producing empirical evidence for its constructs.
Person-centered analyses in quantitative studies about broadening participation for Black engineering and computer science students
Reeping, David; Lee, Walter C.; London, Jeremi S. (American Society for Engineering Education, 2023-05)
Background: There have been calls to shift how engineering education researchers investigate the experiences of engineering students from racially minoritized groups. These conversations have primarily involved qualitative researchers, but an echo of equal magnitude from quantitative inquiry has been largely absent. Purpose: This paper examines the data analysis practices used in quantitative engineering education research related to broadening participation. We highlight practical issues and promising practices focused on "racial difference" during analysis. Scope/Method: We conducted a systematic literature review of methods employed by quantitative studies related to Black students participating in engineering and computer science at the undergraduate level. Person-centered analyses and variable-centered analyses, coined by Jack Block, were used as our categorization framework, backdropped with the principles of QuantCrit. Results: Forty-nine studies qualified for review. Although each article involved some variable-centered analysis, we found strategies authors used that aligned and did not align with person-centered analyses, including forming groups based on participant attitudes and using race as a variable, respectively. We highlight person-centered approaches as a tangible step for authors to engage meaningfully with QuantCrit in their data analysis decision-making. Conclusions: Our findings highlight four areas of consideration for advancing quantitative data analysis in engineering education: operationalizing race and racism, sample sizes and data binning, claims with race as a variable, and promoting descriptive studies. We contend that engaging in deeper thought with these four areas in quantitative inquiry can help researchers engage with the difficult choices inherent to quantitative analyses.
Potential engineers: A systematic literature review exploring Black children's access to and experiences with STEM
London, Jeremi S.; Lee, Walter C.; Hawkins Ash, Chanee D. (American Society for Engineering Education, 2021-09-14)
Background: As engineering remains central to the US economy, it is imperative that the innovators of this field reflect the world in which we live. Despite decades of concerted effort to broaden participation in engineering, representation continues to lack. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide education researchers and practitioners with a clear understanding of barriers to the participation of Black American children in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Our interest is driven by the role that precollege STEM experiences play in children's likelihood of becoming potential engineering students. Scope/Method: We conducted a systematic literature review of 41 articles focused on Black children in precollege STEM contexts. Each article underwent individual review to gain deeper insight into key contextual factors that enable and constrain these potential engineers. Results: We situate our research findings in Perna's college choice model to highlight the key factors that may influence one's career and college decisions. The contextual factors are associated with the (1) social, economic, and policy context (e.g., racism, sexism, and classism); (2) STEM educational and community context (i.e., social perceptions and access); and (3) the local support context (i.e., teachers and family). Conclusions: Our results represent the early workings of a “glass ceiling” above the heads of potential engineering students. The underrepresentation of Black Americans who thrive in engineering is a byproduct of the lack of accessibility to quality and advanced learning experiences that too often plague K–12 schools and communities that serve high populations of Black Americans. Such findings have implications for research and practice.
Promoting Equity by Scaling Up Summer Engineering Experiences: A Retrospective Reflection on Tensions and Tradeoffs
Lee, Walter C.; Knight, David B.; Cardella, Monica E. (Purdue University, 2021)
A central challenge in engineering education is providing experiences that are appropriate for and accessible to underserved communities. However, to provide such experiences, we must better understand the process of offering a geographically distributed asset-based out-of-school program. This paper focuses on a collaborative research project that examined the broad implementation of the Summer Engineering Experiences for Kids (SEEK) program organized by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). SEEK is a three-week summer program that engages participants in hands-on, team-based engineering design projects. NSBE’s goal is to make SEEK culturally sustaining, community-connected, and scalable. The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospective reflection on various aspects of our collaborative project and highlight a series of tradeoffs that must be carefully considered to offer and examine the effectiveness of an intervention designed both to affirm cultural background as well as to broaden access. Guided by Yosso’s community cultural wealth (CCW) framework, we engaged in individual reflection and group discussions about the evolution of our three-year project. We considered the six types of capital outlined in CCW to examine various program design elements and tradeoffs. By illuminating the tradeoffs that are required, we hope this paper can help other program designers and researchers to intentionally, preemptively, and proactively consider such tradeoffs.
Providing Co-Curricular Support: A Multi-Case Study of Engineering Student Support Centers
Lee, Walter C. (Virginia Tech, 2015-04-09)
In response to the student retention and diversity issues that have been persistent in undergraduate engineering education, many colleges have developed Engineering Student Support Centers (ESSCs) such as Minority Engineering Programs (MEPs) and Women in Engineering Programs (WEPs). ESSCs provide underrepresented students with co-curricular support using student interventions in the form of programs, activities, and services. However, ESSCs have a relatively short history and there are gaps in our knowledge about these support systems. While the practice of providing students with co-curricular support has been evaluated, theories of co-curricular support have not been as thoroughly investigated; we know very little about how co-curricular support functions alongside engineering curricula. In an effort to help close the gaps in current literature, the purpose of my study was to explore how the student interventions offered alongside engineering curricula influence the undergraduate experience. To address this purpose, I used a multi-case study design to explore the particulars of six ESSCs housed at four institutions. I focused on the ESSC administrators (those who provide support) and undergraduate students (those who receive support) using multiple qualitative data collection methods. The primary result of this study was the Model of Co-curricular Support (MCCS), which is a version of Tinto's Model of Institutional Departure that I repurposed to demonstrate the breadth of co-curricular assistance required to comprehensively support undergraduate engineering students. The MCCS illustrates how a student's interaction with the academic, social, and professional systems within a college–as well as the university system surrounding the college–could influence the success he or she has in an undergraduate engineering program. More specifically, the MCCS is a conceptual model for constructing and evaluating support systems and individual student interventions that prioritize undergraduate engineering students. Within my study, I also identified several classifications of ESSCs and highlighted some pros and cons associated with various classifications and configurations. Ultimately, this research combines student-retention theory with student-support practice in a way that could facilitate future collaborations among educational researchers and student-support practitioners.
Using Learning Analytics and Student Perceptions to Explore Student Interactions in an Online Construction Management Course
West, Paige; Paige, Frederick; Lee, Walter C.; Watts, Natasha; Scales, Glenda R. (ASCE, 2022-10)
The expansion of online learning in higher education has both contributed to researchers exploring innovative ways to develop learning environments and created challenges in identifying student interactions with course material. Learning analytics is an emerging field that can identify student interactions and help make data-informed course design decisions. In this case study, learning analytics were collected from 113 students in three course sections of an online construction management course in the Canvas learning management system (LMS). Surveys were used to collect students’ perceptions of the course design and materials to correlate with the students’ interactions with the course materials. The survey findings showed the students found watching the lecture videos and reading the lecture slides to be the most helpful aspects of the course materials in their learning. Findings from the learning analytics showed that students’ interactions with the course decreased after the midterm exam. Based on the results, online course instructors can leverage their learning analytics to understand student interactions and make data-informed course design changes to improve their online learning environments.

Browsing by Author "Lee, Walter C."

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