Search

It is increasingly critical that engineering students develop proficiency with computational modeling tools, and many curricula include some introduction to such tools during their first year. It is clear that student interest and skill can vary significantly based on prior experiences, but it is less clear whether student motivation specifically related to computational modeling varies as well. This study hypothesizes that the self-efficacy and utility value related to computational methods varies significantly in students' first year and that engineering students pursuing some disciplines (such as computer, software, and electrical engineering) will begin with a higher initial self-efficacy than others (such as chemical, materials, and biomedical engineering). A survey was used to investigate the utility value and efficacy of approximately 700 undergraduate students in their first year of engineering studies at both a large public institution and a small private institution. Data is analyzed for variations in baseline motivation based on the students' intended major. This analysis also considers known confounding factors such as gender, race, and prior experience with programming. The results of this survey will help determine whether efficacy and interest related to computational methods vary based on intended major early in an engineering student's academic career. Ultimately, it is hoped that this study can inform future studies related to what types of interventions might benefit students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports preliminary descriptive findings from an analysis of and educational intervention that involved curricular changes that incorporated needs finding and engineering design into several (8) undergraduate (200 and 300 level) Biomedical and Chemical Engineering courses in the Spring of 2021 at a medium-sized public HBCU. It is hypothesized that allowing students to gain practice at identifying important needs and designing solutions will increase their beliefs in their own capability to do engineering (self-efficacy), which will in turn help them see themselves as engineers (identity), and promote their valuation of the knowledge, skills, and utility of the field (values). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research will create an academic program (curricular and co-curricular components) that integrates art concepts into an undergraduate engineering program. The goals of the program are increased student innovation, creativity, collegiality, and entrepreneurship, all while broadening the undergraduate talent pool. The programmatic elements are focused on integration of arts in STEM (i.e. STEAM) to achieve the stated goals. The centerpiece is the infusion of STEAM content into laboratories and courses distributed throughout a model engineering program in Metallurgical Engineering. Curricular modifications will be facilitated through involvement of a Resident Artist who will be embedded within the academic program. The research is evidence-based and builds on prior NSF Course Curricular and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) research that involved highly successful curricular and co-curricular programming associated with integration of blacksmithing into an undergraduate Metallurgical Engineering degree program. A rigorous external assessment of the research will be conducted and includes the use of a variety of assessment tools including Herrmann Brain Dominance Inventory, Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID), and student focus groups. Preliminary results from the SGID and student focus group surveys report positive results with the modified curricula that has been integrated into the initial course, Introduction to Metallurgical Engineering. Student surveys were performed with a primary focus on student advancement in areas of creativity, innovation, and technical knowledge. The self-efficacy studies illustrate a general increase in the students' perception of their creative skills and technical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African engineering students may find themselves facing stereotype threat fueled by negative global narratives. Culturally-responsive pedagogies have the potential to counter these narratives. Specific pedagogical approaches and mechanisms that build self-efficacy should be elucidated, so as to enable more African educators to leverage transformative tools in their teaching. This paper explores the hypothesis that in addition to mastery experiences, which can be experienced through project-based learning, the physical environment also plays a significant role in affecting African students' sense of possibility and therefore self-efficacy. By restricting students from entering the campus environment, as necessarily happened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, conditions for an experiment were naturally created. By comparing responses to the same surveys administered to the engineering students at Ashesi University (Ghana) between the cohorts who conducted their first year in person versus online, the author studies the extent to which the physical environment influences students' self-efficacy levels. The results suggest that the original hypothesis does not fully hold, and it may require a more nuanced view. While the author expected the initial self-efficacy measures towards design and fabrication reported by the 2020 cohort (online) to be lower, they were somewhat higher than the 2019 cohort (in person), with small effect size for both genders (gmen = 0.172, gwomen = 0.281). The change in self-efficacy levels over the semester were also equally to more significant for the 2020 cohort who attended online compared to the 2021 cohort completing the same mini-course with weekly sessions in-person. These results suggest that intangible sources of self-efficacy may have a greater influence than the tangible items in the physical environment. They may also suggest that the students' presence in the physical environment can equally be substituted with the assurance of the accessibility of the requisite facilities. Further studies should continue unpacking the role of different variables in driving self-efficacy levels of first year African engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is an important driver of economic growth and sustainable development. Learning and working in today's global and fast-changing world requires engineers who can think innovatively and generate novel ideas. Engineering educators hold a unique position to best equip engineering students to meet the needs of the 21st Century by intervening in the formation of engineers. In this study, the innovation self-efficacy of engineering students is explored before and after a curricular intervention in two environmental engineering target courses: Water Chemistry and Contaminant Fate & Transport. The curricular intervention includes the design of open-ended, team-based, K-12 STEM activities related to the course topics, such as: augmented reality in environmental engineering, transport of contaminants in the environment, and remediation of pollutants from the natural environment. These K-12 lesson and activity plans, created by the engineering students, include a brief presentation of the subject matter and an engineering design activity for the K-12 students to complete which will be hosted on TeachEngineering open-access website for STEM curriculum. During the start and end of this project, a survey consisting of the Very Brief Innovation Self-Efficacy scale (ISE.5), the Innovation Interests scale (INI), and the Career Goals: Innovative Work scale (CGIW) was administered to measure students' shift in: 1) Innovation Self-Efficacy, 2) Innovation Interests, and 3) Innovative Work. The results generated from this survey showed the students' increase in innovation self-efficacy as a result of the design of K-12 STEM projects. The findings will have implications for assisting engineering educators to adopt futuristic designs into their engineering curricula, understand how to encourage innovation self-efficacy in students for their future careers, and understand how student projects focused on teaching promote innovation selfefficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additive manufacturing (AM) is widely used in various industries and has transformed the way products are designed and manufactured. Training workshops in conjunction with a part assessment framework encourage designers to use design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) considerations during the process of idea generation. In this respect, a training framework will assist researchers, educators, and students to evaluate and improve designs and encourage exploration of changes that need to be made during the design process. Successful implementation of DfAM considerations in engineering design classes are an important step in preparing students for professional careers. This research investigates the effect of DfAM integration in engineering curriculum on student design in the first-year engineering classes. Students are given a pre-intervention survey to gather information on their self-efficacy and prior experience with AM. Students complete a design challenge prior to the DfAM educational intervention that is then offered in the form of a design workshop in conjunction with a brief lecture. Ideas generated are collected and assessed using an assessment framework that encourages the use of DfAM considerations. Parts are scored on a scale of 1 to 4 in the following categories: part complexity, assembly complexity, number of separate parts, functionality, thin/smallest feature size, smallest tolerance, unsupported features, support material removal and the largest build plate contact. A score is generated and assigned to each design pre and post intervention. A post intervention survey is given to participants to gather information on changes in DfAM self-efficacy after the intervention as well as to gather feedback on suggested improvements and usefulness of the intervention workshops. The student outcomes before and after intervention are collected and compared for improvement in use of DfAM concepts. Gender differences are also investigated. Results show that DfAM educational intervention improves design scores and student DfAM self-efficacy. These results will enable educators to incorporate DfAM workshops in the engineering curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statics is a required course for the biological and environmental engineering majors, but it often focuses solely on mechanical and civil engineering applications. With no connection to their career, students often see a drop in performance and career development. Therefore, new problems from biological and environmental engineering disciplines are introduced into the course. This study examines the self-efficacy developed within students and the perceived value they ascribe to new problems that teach fundamental statics concepts and focus on biological and environmental principles. The study collected data from 133 students over three semesters. The effect of this intervention was measured by administering a pre-and post-survey at the beginning and end of the course to the Biological, Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering students found in the class. The surveys asked the participants to rate five questions about their self-efficacy and seven questions about their perceived value for the newly introduced homework problems. Ratings were conducted with a five-point Likert scale. Self-efficacy (SE) and perceived value (PV) were studied because of their correlation to performance and future career development. This is a work in progress, and there is an ongoing effort to continue to build the data pool of biological and environmental engineering students since the numbers of those that participated in the study are not large enough to empirically arrive at a conclusion. As such, this study will only be looking at the trend data for the biological end environmental engineering students. The change in the Mean for the SE pre (4.14±0.74) and post (4.10±1.03) data and PV pre (3.40±0.89) and post (3.62±0.73) data showed that there was an improvement in the PV of the course by the Biological and Environmental Engineering students after the new problems were introduced. SE did not reveal any significant difference. This also correlated with the trend in the mean for SE and PV for each individual semesters' survey. In addition to this, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to find significant changes in the data for pre-and postsurveys ranking of the nonparametric data. The results indicated that there was a significant increase in students' PV of the course (pvalue = 0.003) while the SE was not significant (pvalue= 0.128). This study shows that even though authentic Biological and Environmental focused engineering problems have no impact on the students' self-efficacy, they still found the intervention valuable and helpful to their understanding of the course. This value was derived by adding Biological and Environmental engineering-focused questions to Statics and this implies that instructors can maximize the effectiveness of their instruction by implementing majorspecific examples and assignments in their classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-impact academic experiences, particularly research and internship experiences, have positive impacts for engineering students on engineering task self-efficacy (ETSE), a measure of students' perception of their ability to perform technical engineering tasks. However, underrepresented racial/ethnic minority students (URM) and women in engineering are found to have relatively lower self-perceptions across several academic and professional self-efficacy measures. Previous studies examined the impact of research and internship experiences on ETSE for students categorized by gender and URM status separately. The current study explores the impact of these experiences on ETSE for the intersection between these two identity categories. This study found that both non-URM and URM women that participated in research and internship experiences had lower ETSE scores than non-URM and URM men, respectively. However, URM women that participated in both research and internship experiences had a statistically similar ETSE score to non-URM men that had not participated in either. This study uses multiple linear regression to measure the association between engineering internships and student's reported ETSE (effects of participating in research were not found to be significant across identities). Preliminary findings indicate that differences in ETSE between internship participants and non-participants are highest for URM women when compared to their counterparts. Consistent with the literature, this research finds that there is a greater positive effect in ETSE scores, as a result of participation in both research and internship experiences, for URM women than their majority counterparts. These preliminary results provide a foundation for further studies to causally investigate the link between academic experiences and self-efficacy levels for students who are underrepresented in engineering programs. Future implications of this work include the creation of targeted intervention efforts to increase support for all URM students' access and participation in research and internship experiences. Additionally, this work seeks to challenge the bias towards monolithic interpretations of women and URM engineering students as separate categories and encourage intersectional perspectives when analyzing data to produce more inclusive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First year engineering students are generally confident and able to self-direct when working on closed-ended tasks. These students are, however, generally much less confident or self-directed on open-ended problems, such as design challenges. It is naturally uncomfortable to work on open-ended problems, because it feels risky to proceed along an ambiguous solution path. Nevertheless, some students seem to be more confidently uncomfortable, ready and willing to begin working on open-ended problems. We sought in this study to understand the factors that make a student better able to begin work on these projects without directed guidance from the instructor. Here, this student ability is ascribed to, in part, a student's ambiguity tolerance and self-efficacy on open-ended problems. A survey instrument to measure ambiguity tolerance and self-efficacy on open-ended problems was created and subject to internal validation. Students taking a 2-course sequence of required, foundational courses over their first year of engineering were studied using this instrument in pre-, mid-, and end-of-class surveys. The current academic year is the third year of the study, and data from the first two years of the study have been analyzed for presentation here. Several interventions, including the use of improv-theater inspired games, were included in the class with the goal of promoting student growth in the surveyed areas. Survey results show that the course as a whole creates statistically significant positive growth in general engineering project work self-efficacy and in two key metrics of ambiguity tolerance and self-efficacy towards open-ended design problems. Still, while the course overall shows significant positive impacts, results specifically on the improv game intervention are less conclusive. No significant effect of the games specifically on self-efficacy or ambiguity tolerance could be found within the scope of this study. Nevertheless, the instructor and a large majority of students indicated that the games were a positive addition to the course climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study is an evaluation of an introductory solid mechanics course incorporating a pedagogical reform using concepts of active-learning. The focus is on exploring if online activities promote better understanding of conceptual fundamental knowledge of introductory solid mechanics, as well as enhance mechanics-concepts self-efficacy for students. Introductory mechanics courses have long been focused on mathematical and theoretical concepts, and traditionally these courses have been shown to be biased toward instructor engagement versus student engagement. Many studies have reported that this bias creates a gap between instructors' teaching styles and students' learning styles. Despite this discrepancy, many introductory mechanics courses are still taught passively focusing on note-taking, which is believed to play a role in the contribution of students' self-efficacy to persist in their engineering studies as well as in their engineering career choices. Self-efficacy, which is a person's belief in his or her own ability, has been shown to be highly correlated with an individual's performance level. With high self-efficacy, a student will use more cognitive resources and more effective metacognitive strategies and will more likely select challenging tasks than students with lower self-efficacy. Upon encountering a problem, an individual with higher self-efficacy is often more persistent in problem solving than a student with lower self-efficacy. This paper presents an innovative pedagogical approach to teaching an introductory mechanics course, which included weekly lectures, in-class activities, online activities, and hands-on lab exercises. The goal of this paper is to assess the impact of online activities on students' self-efficacy of mechanics concepts, as well as to track students' efficacy levels at various points during the course offering. Several factors, such as students' gender, major, and the education of their parents associated with sense of selfefficacy in the concepts learned are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the development of self efficacy in undergraduate engineering students in engineering education. Self efficacy has been shown to influence student achievement and their motivation to learn, predict engineering students grades. Also included are social cognitive theory by psychologist Albert Bandura.

The article reports on the project tasks in design courses to the development of self-efficacy of engineering students. Engineering self-efficacy is necessary for students for learning continuously, for self-confidence and motivating themselves for challenging tasks. Academic self-confidence is also equally important for engineering students.

The article presents a study focusing on self-efficacy toward Circuit Analysis of engineering students and difference between Community college engineering students and university engineering students. Topics discussed include skilled engineers, first generation students and community college engineering students classrooms.

The article offers information on the implementation of academic advising into engineering design course and its effect on the psychological constructs. Topics discussed include knowledge and comprehension, benefits for academic advising on engineering design self-efficacy, and creativity and graduate teaching assistant.

This paper presents the progress and findings of the second stage of an NSF sponsored interdisciplinary research project that aims at developing guidelines of effective instructional design using collaborative PBL (CPBL) to boost the self-efficacy of minority students in engineering. To achieve the above goal, an exploratory case study was conducted, where we first utilized an innovative instructional design strategy called Participatory Design Approach to improve the curricular structure and CPBL model in a pilot course (EE440), and then analyzed the students' responses to the revised pedagogical model via mixed methods research based on both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. While this paper describes the complete course redesign process using participatory approach as well as the resulted pedagogical changes in the revised CPBL model, the focus is to share the research findings on the impact of course redesign on student learning. During the implementation of the revised CPBL in the pilot course, significant improvements in student participation and project performance were observed. Detailed data analysis reveals the underlying factors that led to the change of students' learning behaviors. Our research findings indicate that well designed PBL model helps to promote deeper learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to explain understanding, self-efficacy and conceptual knowledge of circuit analysis of the community college engineering students. Conceptual knowledge of circuit analysis and self-efficacy for circuit analysis are directly correlated and is also a contributor to performance of engineering students academic achievement.

Cañada College, a Hispanic-Serving community college in California's Silicon Valley attracts a large number of students from traditionally underrepresented groups in engineering. Although many of these students enter with high levels of interest in engineering, their success and completion rates have been low due to a number of factors including low levels of preparation for college-level work, especially in math; lack of awareness of academic and career options; lack of financial, academic, social and cultural capital needed for success; and lack of self-efficacy (i.e., students do not believe that they can succeed in engineering). To address these barriers to student success, Cañada College developed and implemented a number of programs to keep students engaged and motivated towards achieving their academic goals. Among such programs is the Creating Opportunities for Minorities in Engineering, Technology, and Science (COMETS) program. Funded by a four-year grant from NASA through the Curriculum Improvements Partnership Award for the Integration of Research (CIPAIR) program, COMETS was developed through a collaboration with San Francisco State University -- a large, comprehensive, urban university. The program aims to help students develop the skills they need for academic success, as well as provide exposure to the major fields of engineering in order to help solidify their particular areas of interest. Among the strategies developed through COMETS is a summer internship program designed specifically for community college engineering students. During the ten-week internship program, 16 freshmen and sophomore community college students are divided in to four research groups based on their academic interests and academic preparations. Each group consists of four interns, one full-time intern (a student who has completed most of the courses needed for transfer) and three half-time interns, and is supervised by a university faculty adviser and a graduate student mentor. This paper presents the results of four years of implementation of the COMETS internship program, including the outcomes of the research activities of the participants and their perception of their research experiences. The paper will also discuss the impact of the program on strengthening students' identity as engineers and researchers; increasing student interest to further engage in research activities; and enhancing student self-efficacy for successfully transferring to a four-year university, completing a baccalaureate degree in engineering, and pursuing a graduate degree. It will also highlight lessons learned and future plans for the program, as well as best practices that are useful to other institutions in developing similar programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing female participation in construction education programs, and ultimately the construction industry, necessitates an understanding of gender-based differences among construction management students. The psychological constructs of self-efficacy, locus of control, and motivation have been shown to influence human behavior and performance in occupational and educational settings. These constructs were adapted to the domain of construction education in a survey instrument that was administered to 178 construction management students at two universities. The mean levels of construction training self-efficacy was significantly lower (p = 0.033) for females than males. Females also reported a more internal locus of control and lower level of motivation towards construction education than male students; however, the differences were not statistically significant (α = 0.05). Results suggest that female students were less confident in their abilities regarding construction education and were more likely to express an internal locus of control. A low levels of selfefficacy has been linked in previous research to poor performance and low retention among female students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. Results underscore the need for strategies that boost construction education-specific self-efficacy among female construction management students. Interventions for increasing self-efficacy as well as study limitation and opportunities for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks at differences in non-intellective measures expressed by two engineering student populations, one at a large public university in the pacific northwest and the other a small private aerospace institution in the southeast. Both student populations are in their first year of study in their respective engineering majors. Previously validated, Likert scale items were used to measure self-efficacy, task value, peer support, two forms of faculty support, and two forms of belonging using a survey instrument. Students at the small private university reported that their institution was friendlier and had a greater sense of togetherness than the public institution. However, no significant differences were found in the sense of belonging to the university reported by the two groups of students. These same students also reported no significant differences in their sense of peer support, but those students at the small private institution experienced a greater sense of faculty support, both within the context of a course and outside of it. Task value scores associated with engineering were high at both institutions and were not significantly different. Finally, students at the small private institution reported higher levels of self-efficacy than their peers at the public institution, although self-efficacy scores between women at each institution had no such difference. While limited in scope to only a single large and a single small institution, these results provide further insight into the academic and affective correlates of institutional differences and also suggest that students may adapt to develop a sense of belonging regardless of institutional culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study which explored the outcome of a small intervention during the beginning of the first semester to improve the sense of belonging, engineering self-efficacy and student-professor interaction in underrepresented minority engineering students, is presented. Topics covered include the differences between minority and majority engineering students, and the factors to consider in designing an intervention.

This paper presents initial results of a research project on the impact of web-based activities on mechanics achievement and self-efficacy. This pilot research is addressing the question of "What sticks and why?" in an introductory mechanics course that incorporates traditional lectures with interactive hands-on learning, as well as web-based instruction and homework. The web-based activities vary in level of interaction with the student. High interaction activities feature active learning with instant feedback; low interaction activities feature readings and lectures with demonstrations. Exercises focused on creating and using free body diagrams have been developed, and initial data on self-efficacy has been obtained. Additional studies will be conducted throughout the academic year. The introductory mechanics course for which these web-based exercises are being created is taught to 80-90 students per term and involves hands-on laboratory exercises weekly within the class meeting time. The developed web-based exercises are for a one-week segment on free body diagrams and include video clips with opportunities for students to apply concepts both through multiple choice questions and interactive exercises. Class time during this week is devoted to additional hands-on exercises with some supplemental lecture content. Pilot data have been collected and results are reported on both the quantitative and qualitative information. Quantitative data include measures of performance on concept inventory questions and exams, as well as self-efficacy data. Qualitative information includes individual homework and in-class work as well as in-class pair work. In addition to presenting initial findings from our research, we will discuss how embedding of assessment into a course is benefitting both the students and the instructors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study that assessed the impact of several technology-enabled blended learning approaches on a sophomore systems engineering course with a large enrollment. The approaches included an online discussion board, an online peer-review management system and a video-capture technology. The effects of the blended learning strategies on student self-efficacy and perceptions of feedback and grading were examined.

The purpose of this study is to examine characteristics of incoming engineering students as possible predictors of later participation in entrepreneurial activities. Four characteristics were examined: 1) locomotion, 2) self-evaluation, 3) creative self-efficacy and 4) having a close relative who is an entrepreneur. In September of 2013, a survey was sent to first-year engineering students at a large mid-Atlantic university as part of a larger longitudinal study. A total of 817 students completed the survey with a response rate of 29.1%. The students completed a battery of scales including the creative self-efficacy scale,1 the locomotion scale, and the assessment scale.2 At the end of the survey, students were asked whether or not they had yet considered pursing a minor in the engineering entrepreneurship minor located at the university. At the end of the survey, students were also asked whether or not they had a close family member who was an entrepreneur and a series of questions concerning their perceptions of entrepreneurship as a career path. This study examined the following hypotheses: 1) Engineering students who intend to minor in entrepreneurship have higher scores on locomotion and creative-self efficacy and lower scores on assessment. These students will also have more positive perceptions of entrepreneurship as a possible career path. 2) More positive views of entrepreneurship as a career will be positively associated with higher scores on locomotion and creative self-efficacy and lower scores on assessment. 3) Students with a close family member who is an entrepreneur will be more likely to intend to minor in engineering entrepreneurship and have more positive perceptions of entrepreneurship as a career. The results suggest that students who are considered "go-getters" and see themselves as being creative individuals are both likely to know about the entrepreneurship minor early in their academic careers and to aspire to pursue the minor. Students with high locomotion high creative self-efficacy scores also had more positive views of entrepreneurship as a career. Having a close family member who is an entrepreneur was also a positive predictor of a positive view of entrepreneurship as a career [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product archaeology refers to the process of reconstructing the lifecycle of a product to understand the decisions that led to its development and has been used as an educational framework for promoting students' consideration of the broader impacts of engineering on people, economics, and the environment. As a result, product archaeology offers students an opportunity to reconstruct and understand the customer requirements, design specifications, and manufacturing processes that led to the development and production of a product. This paper describes: 1) the identification and development of assessment tools for evaluating the impact of product archaeology, 2) the implementation of the product archaeology framework during two recent academic year semesters in undergraduate engineering courses at all levels across six universities, and 3) assessment results with evidence of the effectiveness of the product archaeology framework. This project uses existing survey instruments, including the Engineer of 2020 survey and the engineering design self-efficacy instrument to assess positive student attitudes and perceptions about engineering. Our assessment plan also uses two newly-developed design scenarios. These scenarios require students to respond to open-ended descriptions of real-world engineering problems to assess students' ability to extend and refine knowledge of broader contexts. Emerging pre-test/post-test comparison data reveal that the product archaeology activities lead to more positive student ratings of both their own knowledge of broader contexts and their self-efficacy regarding engineering design. Analysis of the design scenarios (used to assess students' ability to apply contextual knowledge to engineering design situations) includes results from the Spring and Fall 2013 semesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]