MENU
  • ASEE Logo
  • Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...
    Classified Volunteer
    Login
  • Join Login Volunteer Classified Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...



About
  • Overview
    • Mission, Vision, Goals
    • Public Policy Statements
    • Constitution
    • Bylaws
    • Organizational Structure
    • Investment Policy
    • Financial Policy
  • Our History
  • Staff Contacts
  • Leadership
    • Board Of Directors
    • Academy Of Fellows
    • Past Board Members
    • Advisory Committees
    • Representatives to External Organizations
    • Executive Director's Message
    • Meeting Minutes
  • Volunteer
  • Careers at ASEE
  • Privacy Statement
I Am A...
  • Member
      Login Required
    • Your Member Page
    • Membership Directory
    • Financials
    • Volunteer for Task Force
      • COVID Recovery
      • Engineering Culture
    • No Login Required
    • Awards
    • Divisions, Fellows, and Campus Reps
    • Sections and Zones
    • Resources
  • Prospective Individual/Organizational Member
    • About ASEE
    • Individual Membership
    • Institutional Membership
    • Major Activities
  • Donor
  • Prospective Partner or Sponsor
  • Advertiser
  • Fellowship Seeker
    • About Fellowships
    • High School
    • Undergraduate
    • Graduate
    • Post-Doctoral
    • Other Programs
Events
  • Conferences and Meetings
    • 2022 Annual Conference & Exposition
    • 2021 Virtual Annual Conference & Exposition
    • 2020 Virtual Annual Conference & Exposition
    • Section & Zone Meetings
  • Council Events
    • Conference for Industry and
      Education Collaboration (CIEC)
    • CMC Workforce Summit
    • Engineering Deans Institute (EDI)
    • Research Leadership Institute (RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • EDC Public Policy Colloquium (PPC)
  • Featured Events
    • Frontiers in Education
    • NETI
    • CoNECD
    • First Year Engineering Experience
    • Workforce Summit
  • Future Conference Dates
Publications
  • News
    • Newsletters
    • eGFI
    • Division Publications
  • Journals and Conference Papers
    • Overview
    • Journal of Engineering Education
    • Advances in Engineering Education
    • Conference Proceedings
    • Section Proceedings
    • Zone Proceedings
    • PEER
    • Plagiarism
  • Monographs and Reports
  • Prism Magazine
  • Data
    • Profiles of E&ET Colleges
    • Case Study Series: Engineering-Enhanced Liberal Education
Impact
  • Public Policy Statements
  • Data Analysis
  • Annual Reports
  • Diversity
Education & Careers
  • Academic Job Opportunities
  • Course Catalog
  • Engineering Education Research and Innovation
    • Engineering Education Community Resource
  • PreK-12
    • eGFI Teachers
    • eGFI Students
  • Engineering Teacher PD Endorsement
Calendar
2020 Annual Conference
The ASEE 2020 Virtual Annual Conference content is available.
See More....
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Lessons Learned: Student Perceptions of Successes and Struggles in One-Year Master's Programs in Engineering

Presented at Developing and Establishing Graduate Study Programs - Graduate Studies Division Technical Session 2

Topics: New trends in engineering graduate education; Graduate student needs and experiences; and Innovative graduate programs and methods

In recent years, more condensed graduate programs (such as one-year Master’s programs) have emerged to better enable students to advance their understanding beyond the undergraduate level to aid in potential career advancement. However, limited research has been conducted to understand how the student experience in these programs compare to more traditional graduate programs and the motivators that influence students to enroll in these new programs.

In the fall of 2015, 7 engineering programs at a large, public university introduced new Master’s programs designed to be completed in one year rather than the more traditional 2+ years. In the spring of the first year of the program, the students in these innovative programs as well as all other Engineering Master’s and Ph.D. students were invited to participate in a Program Assessment survey. This survey was designed to explore student motivations for enrolling in their graduate program, career and research goals, academic perceptions, challenges, and program satisfaction. Respondents were separated in three groups for analysis: One-year Master’s students, More-than- one-year Master’s students, and Ph.D. students.

As expected, a majority of students in both One-year and More-than- one-year Master’s programs indicated their plans were to pursue a career in industry, followed by those planning to pursue a doctorate in an area of engineering. Both groups also had a majority of students indicate that research was at least moderately important to their career- and education-goals. However, for the More-than- one-year Master’s students only, the students who reported planning a career in industry rated research significantly less important than those with academically related career plans. Many Master’s students in traditional programs have, therefore, indicated that they do not see research expertise as their primary goal for completing the program. These programs may want to consider the goals and activities offered for Master’s students and whether or not they are aiding students in meeting their career goals.

Results showed that among the expected motivators of career goals, speed, and cost, One-year Master’s students also reported different responses on the three Likert-style scales that asked students about academic perceptions, challenges, and program satisfaction. One-year and More-than- one-year Master’s students’ responses were not significantly different for their academic perceptions or program satisfaction. However, the One-year students rated the level of challenge of their programs significantly higher than their More-than- one-year counterparts, specifically rating coursework, course load, and out of class experiences with faculty as significantly more challenging. This is not unexpected as these programs are meant to be accelerated and are new programs being offered for the first time. However, to encourage success and increased satisfaction with the One-year Master’s programs, suggestions for way to reduce these challenges moving forward will be discussed in more detail in the paper.

Future plans include collecting further data in Spring 2017, which will function both to replicate and to reveal the effects of improvements implemented following the initial year of the programs.

Authors
  1. Ms. Alexa Kottmeyer Pennsylvania State University [biography]

    Alexa Kottmeyer is a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Psychology at Penn State. She has an M.Ed. in Mathematics and taught high school math. Currently, she works as a Graduate Assistant with the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education at Penn State. Her research interests include the roles of conceptual and procedural knowledge, as well as the role of multiple representations, in high school and college level STEM learning and instruction.

  2. Dr. Stephanie Cutler Pennsylvania State University, University Park [biography]

    Dr. Stephanie Cutler has degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and a PhD in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. She is an Associate Research Professor and the Director of Assessment and Instructional Support in the Leonhard Center at Penn State.

Download paper (200 KB)

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.

» Download paper

« View session


  • Follow Us
  • twitter
  • facebook
  • youtube
  • instagram
  • linkedin
  • 1818 N Street N.W. Suite 600, Washington DC 20036

  • Telephone: 202.331.3500 | Fax: 202.265.8504

  • © 2023 Copyright: ASEE.org All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.