Research Initiation: Why do students decide to get involved in co-curricular engineering projects?

California Polytechnic State University Foundation, San Luis Obispo CA

Investigators

Abstract

Co-curricular team projects in engineering - such as design projects, experimental assignments, or national project-based competitions or challenges - can be key experiences for students in forming personal and professional skills and traits. They may also play a strong role in retention and degree completion among underrepresented student groups (for instance women, minorities, those with disabilities). While the benefits of participation are relatively well established, the reasons why students choose to participate or not in the first place are very poorly understood, as they may span a wide spectrum and may not involve fully informed or rational foundations for decision-making. Failure to understand student choices limits our ability to address barriers to participation, and to structure campus programs and their funding to achieve outcomes that include improved diversity and a higher quality of technical and interpersonal learning in project teams. This research involves generating significant new insight into why students choose to participate in co-curricular engineering projects, through use of a mixture of surveys and more detailed interviews with students in different types of universities. The research is designed to yield insight into whether influential decision-making factors and attitudes are consistent across demographic groups or if there are unique gender, ethnicity, social, or socio-economic -related responses that may in turn influence the makeup of co-curricular student project teams. The results will improve the understanding of student motivations and perceptions, including to what extent students consciously evaluate potential trade-offs and consequences of making one choice over another. The survey of students, complemented by interviews for richer depth, uses a Q-Methodology and phenomenological interpretation of student motivations and perceptions when choosing to join (or leave) such projects. The research applies well-established social science approaches to investigate a highly under-studied area in engineering formation. Recent survey tools - developed with NSF funding - designed to explore student co- and extra-curricular engagement are being adopted for the Q Methodology. The Theory of Planned Behavior is being applied to analyze and contextualize the student responses and link them to key underlying attitudes, factors, and processes that influence student participation in co-curricular engineering projects. It is anticipated that predictions of future student involvement can be made based on characteristic responses that will emerge. Students who chose to participate, students who participated and left, and students who never decided to participate in co-curricular projects will be sampled. The project brings together a team with extensive experience in the co-curricular engineering project arena, including engagement on issues of underrepresentation, self-efficacy, and professional formation. Both undergraduate and graduate students, including those from engineering and teaching, are receiving valuable research training in engineering education as part of this research. It is anticipated that the outcomes could help guide campus culture, structure, and funding decisions to enhance the number and diversity of students gaining valuable co-curricular project experience before entering the STEM workforce.