Retaining First Year Engineering Undergraduate Students Barry J' Beggs

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Retaining First Year Engineering Undergraduate
Students  Barry J. Beggs Elaine M. Smith
School of Engineering Computing Glasgow
Caledonian University esm_at_gcal.ac.uk
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Glasgow Caledonian University

• 4th Largest University in Scotland
• Student population of over 15,000
• 7 Schools

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Typical SEC Student

• Large male population
• More than half of third year has directly entered
  from college
• Undergraduate and Postgraduate international
  population (17)

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Our Typical First Year Engineering Student
Profile

• 25 have left their parental home for the first
  time
• 28 are 17 or younger
• 50 are the first person in their family to go to
  University
• 42 are working more than 8 hours per week
• 46 dont know anyone in the class

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Seven Years of First Year Student Retention
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The Triple C Model
care
control
First Year Czar
consistency
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Triple C Model
Ambient plus Academic Experience
(Tinto, 1993, Yorke, 1999, McInnis, 2000, Beggs,
2005)
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Induction First Year and Direct Entry

• Emphasis on socialisation
• Involve Senior Students
• School Passport
• Continue beyond first week

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Take Your Tutor to Breakfast

• All academics are assigned a small first year
  tutor group (approx 4 students)
• Students are told who their personal tutor is and
  asked to email them to introduce themselves and
  invite them to breakfast
• Personal tutors arrange a time suitable for all
  of the students in the group

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Evaluation of Tutor Breakfast
How quickly did your personal tutor respond to
your first email?

• Responded within a few days 61.0
• Responded within one week 7.3
• Responded within two weeks 4.9
• Responded after two weeks 2.4
• Never responded 17.1
• I have never emailed my 7.3
  personal tutor

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Traffic Light Communication
Absence Management using Traffic Light System

Stop and Modify
Reflect and Proceed
Celebrate and Proceed
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Contact Barry bjbe_at_gcal.ac.uk
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Student Activities
Computer Games Club Photographic
Competitions Design Events Team Building
Events 5-a-side Football
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Visit to Laser Quest
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Go Karting
The timing of off campus activities is critical
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• Lets Harvest their Opinions!

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7 Minute First Year Survey
Circle any of the words below that match how
you feel about this course. You can add and
circle your own words
pointless
enlightening
confusing
boring
useless
stimulating
original
uninspiring
dreary
thought-provoking
interesting
straight-forward
informative
worthwhile
repetitive
time-wasting
confused
novel
irrelevant
entertaining
fun
tedious
complicated
useful
(One Minute Paper Schwartz, 1980, Angelo and
Cross, 1993)
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Results of Survey
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Other Questions Asked

• What was the most useful or meaningful thing you
  learned during this course so far?
• What questions remain uppermost in your mind?
• What was the muddiest point in this course so
  far?
• What would you like us to stop, start, continue
  doing?

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Other Questions Asked

• What are 1 or 2 specific things we do that help
  you learn in this course?
• What are 1 or 2 specific things we do that hinder
  or interfere with your learning?
• Please give us 1 or 2 specific practical
  suggestion on ways to help you improve your
  learning in this course

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Common Student Concerns
Timetables - Large gaps between classes. Having
to come in for a single class Handouts/Notes -
More use of VLE Practical activities - More of
them! Course Overview - How does the course work?
Whats the link between the modules/classes? Perso
nal Performance - How do I know Im progressing?
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More Recent Initiatives
Looking for ways to further modify and develop
the learning environment after initial
improvements in retention have been achieved and
maintained presents a significant challenge.

• Online Peer Support for Resits
• Better Start to Academic Year
• Academic Feedback Theme
• Timetable Text Alert to Students
• Interactive Student Social Space

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Notional and Actual Eng Student Effort

• How many hours of studying or reading related to
  your course did you do on average per week during
  Semester A?
•  

Less than 2 hours 39 3 to 4 hours 41 5 to
6 hours 16 More than 6 hours 4
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Lazy Students?

• When students appear to be unable to study we
  should examine their approach to learning before
  blaming them for being idle
  and unmotivated,  

particularly in view of the effect of our
teaching on their approach
Paul Ramsden
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Steps to Success

• Know your student profile
• Improve their ambient experience
• Manage their absence
• Seek, listen to and respond quickly to the
  student voice
• Bring in new ideas to keep students and staff
  engaged
• Design for evaluation and evaluate
• Improve ambient experience then look at what is
  happening in the classroom