Improving Students’ Decision-Making Behavior in Choosing an Engineering Pathway

University Of Illinois At Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by studying how undergraduate engineering students make career and degree program decisions, which will inform the development of a decision support system. First year students can use the system to select a degree program that is aligned with their interests and priorities. Choosing a college major is a complex decision problem. Delaying the decision can cause short and long-term financial burdens for students and significantly extend their time to graduation. Some students can make premature decisions without fully understanding a degree program or potential career opportunities, introducing a risk of attrition. This project plans to provide students with a structured decision making process to help them make informed decisions. The project team will collect student survey data including confidence in making career decisions, academic and career outcome expectations, and career exploratory behavior. The surveys will be conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The results will be used to guide the design of the decision support system, which will be based on engineering curricula descriptions and multiple public sources of career related information. The effectiveness of the system will be assessed in an introductory engineering course at both institutions. Project results will be disseminated to engineering educators through workshops at regional and national engineering education conferences. The goals of this project are to: 1) advance understanding of engineering student decision making behavior in selecting a degree program, 2) refine available decision making theories and models for students’ decisions about majors, and 3) develop an online decision support system grounded in knowledge and theory about academic major selections. The hypothesis is that as individuals gain more interest in an area, they seek to engage in the behavior more often and set goals relating to the activity. The positive reinforcement of the desired outcome and goal attainment makes the activity more rewarding, resulting in increased behavioral intention or planned behavior. In this study, Social Cognitive Career Theory will be used to determine impacts of environmental factors related to career decision making in terms of academic major changes. This will be done through the use of cognitive constructs on commonly used, validated surveys of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, career related planning and intent, and environmental exploration. In addition, the project will study how the use of a theoretical Cognitive Information Processing framework for the external decision making process influences academic major decisiveness as measured by decision making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict. The decision support system will be designed and implemented using the Communication, Analysis, Synthesis, Valuing, and Execution decision making model. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.