Work in Progress: Baseline Survey about Community and Identity

This Work in Progress paper will describe a baseline three-part survey of first-year engineering (FYE) students completed as part of a multi-year collaborative research project focused on community and identity. While many engineering students take a typical path through their education, which is often prescribed by their institution, there are numerous pathways to completing an engineering degree. Additionally, there are often many pathways through FYE at these institutions (e.g., taking an off-semester course, transferring from a different institution, completing a special set of transfer courses, completing a FYE experience in a department different than your major, etc.). Regardless of the path, engineering community and identity development impact both recruitment and retention of engineering students who are on common and unique journeys. To ultimately increase the numbers of graduating engineering students, we need to better understand these pathways and their effects on community and identity. This study examines the communities and identity of FYE students scoped within Lave and Wenger’s Community of Practice framework. A three-part survey is being administered to gathered information regarding students’ communities of practice and future possible selves. For this Work in Progress paper, we are focusing on the results of the first survey and will present results for all three iterations of the survey in future publications. The questions in this baseline survey focused on confidence in choice of major and the impact of the FYE experience (program or discipline specific course). Students were asked to rate their level of agreement with statements such as “I am confident in my choice of major”, ”In the future, I will have a career that will directly relate to engineering”, “I plan to continue pursuing an engineering major”, “I have sufficient information to make an informed choice about a specific engineering major”, “Being good at engineering is an important part of who I am”, “I feel like a real part of my first-year engineering program”, “I am treated with as much respect as other students in my first-year engineering program”, “I think that I will do well my engineering-related courses this year” and “I am good at math, science, and engineering”. In addition, the students were asked to provide information about the groups, clubs, and organizations in which they participated during their FYE experience and prior to college. Demographic information, such as gender, major, and if students are first generation college students was also collected. This baseline survey was given to engineering students at two large land grant research focused universities. At both institutions, the survey was administered electronically to all FYE students who attended orientation. The survey was sent to approximately 800 FYE students at Institution 1 and approximately 1500 FYE students at Institution 2. The results of the survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics to better understand FYE students’ experiences and develop a future protocol. This survey will help establish a baseline of identity and community development for FYE students. The survey is part of a multi-year project and this initial understanding will shape future interviews, allowing the impact of the FYE experience to be further explored. Ultimately, the larger study seeks to understand the impact various decisions made regarding FYE have on community and identity development as student move through multiple pathways. The baseline survey will guide the development of future aspects of this project while providing insights about FYE students’ expected communities and views of themselves.