An analysis of B.S.E.E. degree completion time at Ohio University

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2003 by Giesey, Jeffrey J, Manhire, Brian

II. METHODOLOGY

This research was conducted at Ohio University (OU), which is a Research-II Carnegie classification, state-supported university with an enrollment of 27,798 students on one main and five regional campuses. OU has 276 undergraduate degree programs and a retention rate of 85 percent. Due to its rural location, the student body is largely residential (

Ohio University utilizes a quarter system. Four-year curricula are designed to be completed in 12 10-week quarters. There are three regular academic quarters (fall, winter, and spring) and an extra quarter in the summer designed to give students the opportunity to take additional courses to get ahead or catch up in their programs. Generally one credit-hour is awarded for one hour of class per week for the 10 weeks of a quarter.

At the time of the study, the curriculum for all students required a minimum of 213 quarter credit-hours. In order to complete the degree in four years students were required to take 53.25 credit-hours per year. Due to the prerequisite structure of the curriculum's required courses, the minimum time a student could complete a degree was ten quarters. For each required course a main section is offered as well as a trailer section the following quarter. About two-thirds of the sophomore and junior EE courses are offered in the summer. It is school policy to accommodate students who have the prerequisites to enroll in any required course offered by the school, thus students cannot be delayed by heavily enrolled closed courses.

At Ohio University, students are allowed to repeat a course up to three times and have the subsequent grade completely replace the previous grade. Failed courses are included in this policy. Students have the ability to drop a course without consequences the first two weeks of the ten-week quarter. Between the third and the sixth week, students may withdraw from a course without receiving a grade.

For the study, data was collected from each student's transcript. Information on gender, ACT/SAT scores, HS rank, GPA, and immigration status was recorded. The time interval between when each student started college and the quarter they completed degree requirements was calculated.1 The number of quarters a student was enrolled full-time (>10 credit-hours), part-time, on co-op assignment and not enrolled during the interval was recorded. For each academic year, the number of credit-hours each student attempted was collected and recorded by credit-hours earned, credit-hours failed, credit-hours of courses withdrawn from, and credit-hours of courses the student passed and subsequently repeated. Withdrawal credit-hours were further subdivided by whether the student was passing or failing at the time of withdrawal as noted on the student transcript. Because some courses required a minimum grade in prerequisite courses, some students needed to repeat a course they had passed earlier. These credit-hours were distinguished from those from courses that students repeated voluntarily.

Earned credit-hours were further divided into credit-hours that applied toward the minimum 213 hour degree requirement and those that did not. Categories of credit-hours that do not apply to requirements included remedial credit-hours for English as a second language (ESL), other remedial courses and co-op credits. Other excess credit-hours were classified into non-applicable courses transferred to Ohio University from other institutions and those taken before the students declared electrical engineering as their major. Since the program did not have any unrestricted electives within the 213 credit-hour minimum, courses not counted in the above categories and not used to satisfy any of the requirements for graduation were classified as free electives. The final category of credits recorded was numerical rounding errors caused when a student's courses did not total to the exact minimum number required (such as when a student takes a four credit-hour course and a five credit-hour course to satisfy a requirement that has an eight credit hour minimum).