Work in progress: Retention of freshmen computer and electronics engineering students

Roger Sash, Herbert Detloff, Bing Chen, Neal Grandgenett, Deborah Duran

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Retaining freshman students within a challenging engineering program can often be a considerable challenge for an institution and its faculty. At the University of Nebraska's Peter Kiewit Institute, in Omaha Nebraska, the number of students who either withdraw or fail the first semester freshmen Computer and Electronics Engineering (CEEN) fundamentals course has historically been about 30%. For the Fall 2005 semester the department decided to implement a multi-faceted retention effort to try to reduce this number. The measures implemented were 1: an off-campus overnight retreat prior to the start of classes, 2: assignment of students to small learning groups called "pods" which were led by upper class students, 3: hiring a graduate student as a Counseling Assistant (CA), and 4: implementing immediate feedback from the course instructor to the counseling assistant while identifying students who needed guidance. This paper describes the efforts and preliminary retention results.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages19-20
Number of pages2
ISBN (Print)1424402565, 9781424402564
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006
Event36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE - San Diego, CA, United States
Duration: Oct 28 2006Oct 31 2006

Publication series

NameProceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
ISSN (Print)1539-4565

Conference

Conference36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego, CA
Period10/28/0610/31/06

Keywords

  • Counseling
  • Freshman retention
  • Learning groups

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Education
  • Computer Science Applications

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Work in progress: Retention of freshmen computer and electronics engineering students'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this