Engineering Education Research Seminar Series
Spring 2025
March 27, 2pm CT - Dr. David Reeping, University of Cincinnati
KH A253 and https://unl.zoom.us/j/95245731475
Measuring the Complexity of Your Curriculum for First-Time-In-College and Transfer Students
Abstract: Engineering curricula are highly sequential and commonly include an intricate set of prerequisites, often leading to chains of courses where students can get stuck - especially in courses with low pass rates called gateway or weed-out courses. When developing new curricula or tweaking existing programs, few data-driven tools exist to help identify potential bottlenecks, perform comparisons among peer programs, and simulate how different students could flow through various scenarios. In this seminar, we will explore an analytical framework for curriculum development and change called Curricular Analytics, which is growing in popularity. In essence, Curricular Analytics measures how “complex” a curriculum is by drawing ideas from network analysis. Thus, this framework allows us to quantify the interconnectivity of requirements in a plan of study and correlate the results with other variables like student outcomes, including retention and graduation. We will discuss two ongoing projects to highlight the framework’s applications. The first project involves creating and analyzing a new publicly available plan of study dataset to quantitatively compare engineering programs in five disciplines across 13 institutions in the United States over a decade (n ~ 500 plans of study). Additionally, we explore how student course-taking patterns within these programs differ using a high-dimensional clustering technique called n-TARP. The second project concerns the refinement of Curricular Analytics to be sensitive to issues faced by students entering a four-year program from a community college. To accomplish this revision, transfer professionals (n = 38) from across the U.S. were engaged using focus groups to discuss unique curricular challenges transfer students face. The transcripts were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory to elicit a theory of curricular complexity for transfer students. Practical guidance and resources will be provided for those interested in applying Curricular Analytics in their own contexts.
Bio: Dr. David Reeping is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering and Computing Education at the University of Cincinnati and a Fellow of the Institute for Learning Research within the Office of the Provost. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech and was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. He received his B.S. in Engineering Education with a Mathematics minor from Ohio Northern University. His main research interests include transfer student information asymmetries, threshold concepts, curricular complexity, and advancing quantitative and fully integrated mixed methods.
April 3, 2pm CT - Margaret Ann Bolick, Clemson University
Unseen Assets: How First-Generation College Students Thrive in Norwegian Higher Education
Zoom Link: https://unl.zoom.us/j/99608581403
Abstract: Norwegian first-generation college students (FGCS) pursuing STEM degrees face unique challenges in post-secondary education, particularly in first-year mathematics courses, which often serve as gatekeepers to STEM fields. This qualitative study, which is part of a larger dissertation, employs Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework to explore the forms of capital Norwegian FGCS identify as salient to their academic success. Through in-depth interviews with a diverse group of FGCS from a Norwegian university, we identified not only the six traditional forms of capital from CCW—aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant—but also two additional forms: vocational and age-earned capital. These findings highlight how prior vocational experiences and the maturity gained from age contribute to student persistence and success in first-year mathematics courses. The study highlights the importance of asset-based approaches in understanding FGCS’ experiences and suggests institutional strategies to better support their learning. By shifting from a deficit perspective to one that recognizes the strengths and resources FGCS bring, this research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of student success in higher education.
Bio: Margaret Ann Bolick is a doctoral candidate in Engineering and Science Education at Clemson University in rural South Carolina. Before pursuing a PhD, she taught high school mathematics and science courses in the Boston Public School System, where she developed a passion for disrupting systems negatively impacting student success. Margaret Ann’s research focuses on systems-level comparisons across international contexts and the impacts on first-generation college students in first-year mathematics courses. Currently, Margaret Ann is a graduate researcher on the NSF-funded project, Achieving Critical Transformations in Undergraduate Programs in Mathematics (ACT UP - Math). In this role, she investigates the inclusion of students in equity-oriented departmental change groups within mathematics departments. She is also a Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education (CADRE) Fellow where she engages in professional growth activities dedicated to preK-12 STEM education research. Margaret Ann earned both her MAT in Mathematics Education as a Noyce Scholar and her BS in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University.
April 10, 9 am CT - Syed Ahmad Helmi Bin Syed Hassan, Professor of Practice, Purdue University
NH W357
April 10, 2pm CT - Khairiyah Mohd Yusof, Purdue University
Coming Soon!