Over the past three years, faculty at Florida Gulf Coast University have re-envisioned the freshman-level introductory engineering course required by multiple programs in the College of Engineering [Kunberger and Geiger, 2015, Kunberger, Geiger and Reycraft, 2016]. One aspect, the addition of Mentor TAs, was intended to develop informal near-peer mentor experiences, considered a “practice-based” mentoring initiative [Packard, 2016]. These students would serve not only as a traditional TA in providing feedback on course deliverables, but would also serve as a mentor within this first course in engineering in order to increase retention and promote a more inclusive culture in the college.
The most recent evolution of the introductory engineering course added a summer training workshop for course Mentor TAs. This 30-hour workshop took place over a one-week period in the summer and included both face-to-face and online components. Topic coverage fell into one of three main categories: 1) university employment expectations, 2) course logistics and expectations, and 3) effective interactions between Mentor TAs and students enrolled in the course. Workshop effectiveness was evaluated through a mixed method approach including the use of pre and post workshop surveys and end of the semester focus group discussions with students serving as Mentor TAs as well as post course surveys of course-enrolled students. A complete discussion of the developed workshop and the future direction of the program is also included.
http://orcid.org/https://0009-0003-9407-7753
Florida Gulf Coast University
[biography]
Dr. Kunberger is Division Chair for Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown.
Chris Geiger is an Instructional Associate Professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, and his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering, also from Northwestern University
Dr. Jackie Greene is Assistant Director of the Lucas Center for Faculty Development at Florida Gulf Coast University. She worked in faculty development during her career with public schools, the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, and in her current position. She is involved with the SPARCT Program as a member of the planning committee and she analyzes the qualitative data for program review and assessment purposes.
Dr. Greene received her degrees from Kent State University and Florida Gulf Coast University.
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.