2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This evidence-based practice paper describes a living-learning community model for first- and second-year engineering students. Our residential community is designed to foster an educational experience that effectively supports and reinforces academic excellence in the classroom while infusing leadership practices into the physical and developmental spaces our students share. We do this by supporting academic foundations in engineering, promoting community responsibility, and teaching principles of leadership. Our programming model includes cohort-style engineering coursework, bi-weekly course reviews, and a collaborative service-learning project in which second-year students are project managers and first-year students are team members.

The Engineering Leadership Community started as a retention strategy in 2009. Students who do not integrate socially and academically into their institution of higher learning are more likely to depart from college before earning a degree (Tinto, 1975). In fact, student engagement can actually compensate for academic under preparedness, giving students the opportunity to connect to more academic support (Cruce, Wolniak, Seifert, and Pascarella, 2006; Kuh, 2008; Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, Kinzie, and Gonyea, 2008). By providing a physical environment for students in engineering majors to live, our program has historically allowed students to make academic and social connections early in their college career, which better supports their persistence. In recent years, students in the Engineering Leadership Community have taken multiple classes in the same sections together, including a one-credit academic success course and their introductory engineering lab. This method uses Tinto’s learning community model, helping students to make connections between courses with their peers (2003).
The additional elements of service-learning and project-based learning have brought the residents of the Engineering Leadership Community into stronger leadership roles. Using Baxter-Magolda’s (2004) learning partnership model, we combine students’ academic skills and interests in engineering with social justice and community service in order to produce what Baxter-Magolda calls “effective citizenship.” In addition, the program design allows for a scaffolded educational experience, support students as freshmen and gradually challenging them to take on leadership responsibilities by the end of their second year.

During the first semester of the first year, students assemble a Leadership E-Portfolio, which helps students to document and reflect upon the lessons they’ve learned from various activities and how they’ve influenced their personal, academic, and professional goals. Students receive feedback on their e-portfolio, and are encouraged to continue adding to it throughout their second year in the program to demonstrate the progress they’ve made towards their goals. This activity “validates [the] learners as knowers” (Cardone, Turton, Olson, Baxter-Magolda, p. 7, 2013) and challenges students to author the ways that they use their engagement experiences to accomplish their goals. The e-portfolio allows students to record and reflect upon important learning outcomes, for example, the ability to communicate effectively or function on an interdisciplinary team.
We use qualitative analysis to assess how students interact and makes sense of different elements of this program. In order to live in the Engineering Leadership Community, students submit a statement of purpose and a resume. These documents, along with work submitted in the academic success class, are analyzed inductively and deductively in NVivo software in order to code and connect themes in students’ attitudes and beliefs. At the end of the academic year, students participate in interviews to share about their participation in the Engineering Leadership Community. These data are used to continuously evaluate the program.

Promising results have included continued academic success and retention, continued engagement in leadership activities within the college and the university, and a greater sense of peer-support and accountability. Students have also demonstrated more self-efficacy in project management and team leadership.

What started as a program designed to retain students in the engineering discipline has turned into a multi-level developmental experience for first and second year students. The environment of both peer and administrative support has given students the opportunity to thrive in rigorous coursework, develop confidence in their planning, organization, and leadership skills, and connect their academic work to real-life applications of engineering.

 
References
Baxter Magolda, M.B. (2004). Self-authorship as the common goal of twenty-first century education. In M. Baxter Magolda & P. King (Eds.), Learning partnerships: Theory and models to educate for self-authorship. (pp. 1-35). Sterling: Stylus Publishing.
Cardone, T., Turton, E. S., Olson, G., & Baxter Magolda, M. (2013). Learning partnerships in practice: Orientation, leadership, and residence life. American College Personnel Association and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Cruce, T., Wolniak, G. C., Seifert, T. A., & Pascarella, E. T. (2006). Impacts of good practices on cognitive development, learning orienations, and graduate degree plans during the first year of college. Journal of College Student Development, 47, 365-383.
Kuh G. D. (2008). High-impact education practices: What are they, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Kuh G.D., Cruce T., Shoup R., Kinzie, J., & Gonyea R. M. (2008). Unmasking the effects of student engagement on college grades and persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 79, 540-563.
Tinto, V. (1975). Dropout from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research. 45(1). 89-125.