2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 95: Expanding Access to and Participation in MIDFIELD (Year 3)

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

This project seeks to expand the number of institutions participating in The Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD). MIDFIELD is a resource enabling the study of students that includes longitudinal, whole population data for multiple institutions. Retention, measured in various ways, has been the dominant mode of studying student success in engineering and in higher education in general. However, studying who matriculates and who graduates does not tell the complete story of a student's path through the engineering curriculum nor should it be used as a measure of an institution. A national, longitudinal student unit-record database enables study of engineering programs and benchmark metrics consistently. MIDFIELD has been used in high impact research on student matriculation habits disaggregated across various engineering disciplines, ethnicities and genders. However, its value as a predictive tool has been limited due to the small (eleven) number of institutions included.

This project aims to expand MIDFIELD database from 11 to 103 institutions containing over 10 million students. More specifically the data will represent over 50% of the U.S. engineering undergraduate degrees awarded and increase the diversity of institutions in the dataset. MIDFIELD will include public and private institutions, minority serving institutions, and institutions from a broad range of research classifications. The scope and longitude of MIDFIELD will enable significant improvements in research in higher education. It will enable the development of research capacity to examine student characteristics (race/ethnicity/gender/social class) and curricular pathways (including coursework) by institution and over time. Because the dataset contains students records of all students matriculating over a period of time, researchers can study students across all disciplines, not just engineering.

As of October 1, 2018, we have secured participation agreements from 27 institutions in addition to the original 11, bringing the total number of institutions in MIDFIELD to 38. Thirty-one (31) other institutions are in the process of signing agreements. In addition to collecting student record information, we are compiling academic policy information for each partner institution. We have also held workshops at engineering education conferences and the American Sociological Association annual conference to educate the broader research community, expanding the network of researchers capable of conducting this research and the sharing of innovative research methods in addition to the actual data.

This expansion project is designed to recruit a stratified sample of US institutions with engineering programs. Institutions interested in joining MIDFIELD can typically be substituted for those originally targeted for recruitment. MIDFIELD partners have the opportunity to conduct peer comparisons, carry out research to inform local policies and practice, and receive unblinded information about their institution.

Due to the broad nature of the disciplines represented by MIDFIELD, this project has cross-Directorate support from the Directorates of Engineering, Math and Physical Sciences (MPS), and Education and Human Resources (EHR) as well as the Office of Integrative Activities (OIA). Within the MPS Directorate, this work is supported by Astronomy, and Physics; within EHR, this work is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program.

Authors

Dr. Matthew W. Ohland http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4052-1452 Purdue University-Main Campus, West Lafayette (College of Engineering) [biography]

Matthew W. Ohland is the Dale and Suzi Gallagher Professor and Associate Head of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He has degrees from Swarthmore College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Florida. His research on the longitudinal study of engineering students and forming and managing teams has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation and his team received for the best paper published in the Journal of Engineering Education in 2008, 2011, and 2019 and from the IEEE Transactions on Education in 2011 and 2015. Dr. Ohland is an ABET Program Evaluator for ASEE and represents ASEE on the Engineering Accreditation Commission. He was the 2002–2006 President of Tau Beta Pi and is a Fellow of the ASEE, IEEE, and AAAS. He was inducted into the ASEE Hall of Fame in 2023.
Dr. Susan M. Lord http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2675-5626 University of San Diego [biography]

Susan Lord is Professor and Chair of Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego. She received a BS from Cornell University in Materials Science and Electrical Engineering (EE) and MS and PhD in EE from Stanford University. Her research focuses on the study and promotion of equity in engineering including student pathways and inclusive teaching. She has won best paper awards from the Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transactions on Education, and Education Sciences. Dr. Lord is a Fellow of the IEEE and ASEE and received the 2018 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. She is a coauthor of The Borderlands of Education: Latinas in Engineering. She is a co-Director of the National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI).
Dr. Marisa K. Orr http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5944-5846 Clemson University [biography]

Marisa K. Orr is an Associate Professor in Engineering and Science Education with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University.
Dr. Richard A. Layton [biography]

Richard A. Layton is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He received a B.S. from California State University, Northridge, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. With Matthew Ohland, Layton is a co-founding developer of the CATME Smarter Teamwork system and the midfieldr R package for working with student unit records. He is a co-author of the Engineering Communications Manual, Oxford Univ. Press, 2017. He currently consults as a data visualization specialist using R.
Mr. Russell Andrew Long Purdue University [biography]

Russell Long, M.Ed. was the Director of Project Assessment at the Purdue University School of Engineering Education (retired) and is Managing Director of The Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD).
Dr. Catherine E. Brawner http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8172-7599 Research Triangle Educational Consultants [biography]

Catherine E. Brawner is President of Research Triangle Educational Consultants. She received her Ph.D.in Educational Research and Policy Analysis from NC State University in 1996. She also has an MBA from Indiana University (Bloomington) and a bachelorâ€™
Mr. Hossein EbrahimNejad Drexel University [biography]

Hossein EbrahimiNejad is a data scientist currently working with the office of Enrollment Analytics at Drexel University. He received his PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue University, where he gained a strong knowledge of higher education and strategic enrollment management. Hossein's skills in data management, data visualization, and predictive modeling allow him to empower stakeholders to make strategic decisions using advanced analytic information. With Drexel's commitment to promoting and supporting student success, Hossein's work with Enrollment Analytics allows the University to make data-driven strategic decisions regarding enrollment and financial projections that are as effective and efficient as possible.
Mr. Hassan Ali Al Yagoub http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8812-4109 Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Hassan Al Yagoub is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education at Purdue University. His research interests include diversity & inclusion, students’ persistence, advising and mentoring, engineering career pathways, and school-to-work transition of new engineers.
He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, Hassan worked for five years at General Electric where he graduated from their Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP) and then worked as a gas turbine fleet management engineer. In addition to his technical role, Hassan supported the recruiting, interview, and selection process of the EEDP Program, where he mentored interns, co-ops and Edison associates from the Middle East and Africa regions by developing and teaching a technical training curriculum, providing guidance for graduate school applications, and providing career consultation.

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