TY - GEN
T1 - Topical concerns and critical questions engineering students want/need answers to
T2 - 48th Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2018
AU - Rodriguez, Armando
AU - Pradhan, Pragyan A.
AU - Puttannaiah, Karan
AU - Das, Nirangkush
AU - Mondal, Kaustav
AU - Sarkar, Aratrik
N1 - Funding Information:
Abstract — This Research to Practice Full Paper examines which topical concerns and critical questions engineering students want/need answers to - based on a survey associated with a list of 201 critical questions (addressing 17 topics) asked by students since 2001. Over this period, the lead author has run an Academic Success and Professional Development (ASAP) mentoring-scholarship program (supported by NSF/industrial funding) aimed at recruiting, training, graduating and placing engineering students. This projectcentric program at Arizona State University (ASU) - and the associated community of practice (consisting of learners and faculty-industry-peer mentors), while currently focusing on upper-division transfer students, serves upper-division non-transfers and some graduate students. The list of topics and questions was created to help students ask questions and think about the opportunities/challenges before them. Data for the most recent cohort of 74 scholars is presented and analyzed. It is shown how the list of selected critical topics and questions varies depends on gender, minority status and age. Analysis of the data shows that higher-risk (higher-context) groups (e.g. women, underrepresented minorities) focus more on shorter-term career goals while lower-risk groups focus more on longer-term career and life-planning goals. The information presented should be helpful to program leaders, administrators and educators advising engineering students.
Funding Information:
A.A.Rodriguez is the Director of the Southwest Institute for Engineering Transfer Excellence (SWIETE), a senior member of IEEE and a Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering (ECEE), Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, AZ, aar@asu.edu. P.A.Pradhan is an MS student in ECEE. K.Puttannaiah is a PhD candidate in ECEE. N.Das is an MS student in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport & Energy. K.Mondal and A.Sarkar are PhD students in ECEE. This work has been supported, in part, by NSF Grant No. 1565177.
Funding Information:
developed a student-and-project-centric ENG Academic Success and Professional Development (ASAP) mentoring-scholarship program that has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 2001. Fundamental to the program is that all scholars must participate in career-shaping/steering projects [1,2]. While currently focusing on upper-division community college (CC) transfer students, the program also serves upper-division non-transfers and some graduate students (that started as undergraduates in our program). While 9 Arizona CCs are part of the current $5M (ASU share: $4M), 5-year, 10 institution NSF-funded grant (Central Arizona, Eastern Arizona, Cochise, Estrella Mountain, Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix, Mohave, and Yavapai), the program serves many other CCs across the region. This paper, as well as our other two 2018 FIE papers [1,2], describes work taking place at the lead (4-year) institution - Arizona State University (ASU). Future papers will describe similar activities taking place at partnering CCs. The program combines an ENG ASAP Transfer Excellence Academy framework - like an honor’s college, but more focused on professional development - with an active community of learners and faculty-industry-peer mentors forming a vibrant community of practice [19,20]; see two 2018 FIE papers [1,2] and [3-16].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/3/4
Y1 - 2019/3/4
N2 - This Research to Practice Full Paper examines which topical concerns and critical questions engineering students want/need answers to - based on a survey associated with a list of 201 critical questions (addressing 17 topics) asked by students since 2001. Over this period, the lead author has run an Academic Success and Professional Development (ASAP) mentoring-scholarship program (supported by NSF/industrial funding) aimed at recruiting, training, graduating and placing engineering students. This project-centric program at Arizona State University (ASU) - and the associated community of practice (consisting of learners and faculty-industry-peer mentors), while currently focusing on upper-division transfer students, serves upper-division non-transfers and some graduate students. The list of topics and questions was created to help students ask questions and think about the opportunities/challenges before them. Data for the most recent cohort of 74 scholars is presented and analyzed. It is shown how the list of selected critical topics and questions varies depends on gender, minority status and age. Analysis of the data shows that higher-risk (higher-context) groups (e.g. women, underrepresented minorities) focus more on shorter-term career goals while lower-risk groups focus more on longer-term career and life-planning goals. The information presented should be helpful to program leaders, administrators and educators advising engineering students.
AB - This Research to Practice Full Paper examines which topical concerns and critical questions engineering students want/need answers to - based on a survey associated with a list of 201 critical questions (addressing 17 topics) asked by students since 2001. Over this period, the lead author has run an Academic Success and Professional Development (ASAP) mentoring-scholarship program (supported by NSF/industrial funding) aimed at recruiting, training, graduating and placing engineering students. This project-centric program at Arizona State University (ASU) - and the associated community of practice (consisting of learners and faculty-industry-peer mentors), while currently focusing on upper-division transfer students, serves upper-division non-transfers and some graduate students. The list of topics and questions was created to help students ask questions and think about the opportunities/challenges before them. Data for the most recent cohort of 74 scholars is presented and analyzed. It is shown how the list of selected critical topics and questions varies depends on gender, minority status and age. Analysis of the data shows that higher-risk (higher-context) groups (e.g. women, underrepresented minorities) focus more on shorter-term career goals while lower-risk groups focus more on longer-term career and life-planning goals. The information presented should be helpful to program leaders, administrators and educators advising engineering students.
KW - Academic success
KW - Career-shaping projects
KW - Context diversity
KW - Mentoring
KW - Professional development
KW - Scholarships
KW - Transfer students
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063512580&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85063512580&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/FIE.2018.8658625
DO - 10.1109/FIE.2018.8658625
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85063512580
T3 - Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
BT - Frontiers in Education
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 3 October 2018 through 6 October 2018
ER -