Informal instructional design to engage and retain students in engineering

Abstract

Universities in US, Australia and Europe have been working explicitly and in focused ways to arrive at an understanding of issues relating to student underperformance, student retention and academic success in engineering and science disciplines. More importantly, they have been introducing interventions in the curriculum and instructional design that attempted to provide more support for students based on these issues. However, despite these efforts and extensive researches on the topic, student withdrawal rates are still on the rise and for some programme disciplines, the retention rate is at a point where the programmes are in danger of closure. In this paper, the author will present ideas for a retention strategy model to engage students in the curriculum by investigating students who withdrew in a five-year period. It will also present some informal instructional approaches. The model takes into account the root of the problem at any one time which is essential for designing successful approaches to student retention and engagement. Evidences will be cross-examined through literature reviews, data from students who have withdrew and interviews with academic tutors. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media.