Assessment of the impact of freshman engineering course

Journal of Engineering Education, Oct 1998 by Budny, Dan, LeBold, William, Bjedov, Goranka

ABsTRAcT

This study evaluates whether Purdue University's freshman engneering courses supply entering students with the necessary foundation to persist in engineering because of the skills they acquire in these courses. To measure this, we evaluate longitudinal data on retention and graduation rates of students that start in the standard first semester courses, start in the off-sequence semester, or participate in our tutorial program. The study is based on historical data for the 28-year period from 1966 through 1993.

I. NOMENCLATURE

A number of terms concerning retention and graduation will be used extensively throughout this study. They are defined below:

Entry Year. Year that the entering engineering student starts at Purdue University.

Entering Engineering Student.: A first semester student that enters the Department of Freshman Engineering.

Engineering Graduation Rate. Percentage of entering engineering students that graduate in engineering, for each entry year.

Engineering Retention Rate: Percentage of entering engineering students that are still enrolled or graduated in engineering, for each entry year.

University Graduation Rate: Percentage of entering engineering students that graduate from Purdue (engineering and non-engineering), for each entry year.

University Retention Rate: Percentage of entering engineering students that are still enrolled or graduated from Purdue (engineering and non-engineering), for each entry year.

SAT Scores: All SAT Scores are the original scores before the College Board and ETS introduced recentering.

II. THE PURDUE ENGINEERING SYSTEM

At Purdue University, we offer professional engineering degrees in Aeronautical and Astronautical, Agricultural, Civil, Chemical, Computer, Construction Engineering and Management, Land Surveying, Electrical, Industrial, Interdisciplinary, Materials, Mechanical, and Nuclear Engineering. However, an entering student majoring in Civil Engineering, for example, is not accepted into the School of Civil Engineering his/her first year but rather into the Department of Freshman Engineering, which since 1954 has acted as the gateway to the professional schools. Before an individual can be admitted into one of the professional schools, he/she must complete a required set of core "high-risk" courses with a minimum "C" average. The core consists of two semesters of calculus, two semesters of chemistry, two semesters of English, one semester of physics, one semester of computer tools and one semester of computer programming. Once these courses are completed successfully, the entering engineering student may transfer into one of the professional schools of engineering.

III. THE FAILURE OF THE "HIGH-RISK" COURSES

Figure 1 shows the engineering and university graduation data for over 35,000 entering engineering students for the 25-year period from 1966-1990. Very few entering students will graduate in less than four years. Any student in a co-op program requires a minimum of five years. This, together with limited course offerings and other social and economic variables, causes the average required time for graduation to approach six years. Thus, the last year of meaningful graduation data is 1990.

The relatively low engineering retention rates prior to 1970 resulted in the formation of a comprehensive tutorial (CT) program1 that has significantly increased engineering retention. (This program is described later in this paper.)

The figure shows that the graduation rates vary from year to year. However, for the past fifteen years an average of 78% of the entering engineering students graduate with a degree from Purdue, with 57% graduating in engineering.

Of the 43% that leave engineering, at least 49% transfer to a different school within Purdue and graduate, and 51% leave Purdue without a degree.

Additional historical data for the same student population shown in figure 2, indicate that over the past fifteen years, approximately 64% of the entering engineering students completed the freshman requirements and transferred into one of the professional schools of engineering. Thus, of the 43% who leave engineering, the large majority (84%) do so before they enter a professional school. Exit interviews with many of these students indicate that the main reason for leaving engineering was difficulty with calculus, chemistry, or physics. Therefore, the main causes of this large dropout rate are the freshman "High-Risk" courses.

IV. IMPORTANCE OF SUCCESS IN "HIGH-RISK"' COURSES

Since Calculus, Computer Programming, Chemistry, and Physics are so critical to the beginning engineering student, each course is monitored by a faculty committee composed of professors from each of these areas and a representative from the school of engineering. Examples of the coordination of these efforts is that physics has the first calculus course as a prerequisite, and in the second semester both the physics and calculus courses are teaching vector algebra simultaneously. Also, the calculus courses have sections that concentrate on applied physics problems such as center of mass, fluid statics, and the derivation of the equations of motion. In addition, the science departments have studied the cause of failure in their respective courses and have come to an agreement that weak algebra skills are a common problem in all these sciences. Therefore, the mathematics department has developed an algebra proficiency exam that is given to entering freshmen. Passing this test is a prerequisite to access to the first semester calculus and computer course.