An innovative mechanism to establish positive association within the first year of civil engineering curriculum

Abstract

Retention of students after the initial year of class work is a major issue facing engineering programs today. The typical approach has been to create a common freshman or first year experience that faculty or administrators have predetermined to be positive. This technique has been criticized as lacking depth or breadth of knowledge, garnering poor retention of knowledge in students, and generally failing to create a positive enough association to thwart the attrition of students to other seemingly less challenging majors. The ubiquitous progression of technical classes which engineering students march through, coupled with the general disregard of American students towards math, science and technology appears to create a mindset in students that is quite difficult to change. Calls have been made for transformation in curriculum, both fundamental and finite although these changes garner limited returns on investment. This project was created to provide a positive association with the declared major, civil engineering, and to create a lasting impression to get through the core curriculum requirements without loss of majors. This project consisted of a semester long, group based project document infrastructure which influenced the student's everyday life. Individual initial engagement in civil engineering was measured with a survey and reflection prior to introduction of the assignment in class. Students were allowed to co-create the course by using social networking sites as tools for documentation, updates, changes, review, and basic networking. At the end of the semester students viewed other groups' projects and the videos were placed on YouTube. Student self assessed their association with civil engineering at the end of the semester and these measures were then compared to their baseline. Results indicate a more positive association with civil engineering, and with engineering in general in students who participated in the video projects and separated civil engineering freshman course than those who were enrolled in a more traditionally structured course. Faculty effort expended was substantially greater for preparation and continued engagement than the traditional course. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.