“Developing Curriculum for a Multi-Course Interdepartmental Learning Community to Promote Retention and Learning for Underprepared Engineering Students”

by Rachel A. Milloy, Matthew Moberly, and Rebecca Powell | Xchanges 9.1

In Their Own Words: Assessment Outcomes

Throughout the semester, we used the formative assessment measures to encourage active learning, collaboration, and thinking through disciplinary perspectives, the goals of the ILC. At the end of semester, we were able to gauge students’ progress through the summative assessments. We looked for evidence of the following: active learning, collaboration, and thinking through disciplinary perspectives.

Evidence of Active Learning

When students received positive feedback and/or succeeded at complex tasks, they began to view themselves as active learners. One student wrote a vow to live up to his potential after experiencing success in the ILC:

Student One: In high school, I absolutely hated to write. And I only did what I had to do in order to get by. This year, I did something that I’ve never done before. I actually put forth an effort on my assignments. And as a result, I got A’s on the first two assignments. It was my first time receiving A’s on writing assignments like these. It makes me regret not putting forth more effort in high school. Instead of working to my potential, I was satisfied with a C, but not anymore.

Students also commented on specific assignments, pointing to the importance of carefully considering the work habits curriculum design encourages:

Student Four: A specific activity this semester that showed me how my values and habits should change was the documented argument in my English class. This ten page assignment made me realize that some of my habits need to change in order to complete an above average paper. Some of these habits are my time management and study habits. Unlike high school, there is no way assignments in college can be started and completed near a due date.

Evidence of Collaboration

In response to the typical work environment of engineers, some assignments asked students to work in groups. Some students felt stifled by the clusters of the ILC, while others found the clusters supportive and typical of real life situations:

Student Seven: The ILC is like a family because we’re stuck together whether we like it or not. But that’s what makes it great because it teaches you that people you don’t like will be there, and you have to work it out and make the best of it. Besides, the ILC group tends to stick their necks out for each other, like a large team that protects each other.

Evidence of Thinking through Disciplinary Perspectives

Typically, engineering students do not value writing. But, by the end of the semester, students universally expressed, if not an enthusiastic embrace of writing, at least a begrudging acknowledgement of the importance of writing in engineering:

Student Seven: I finally figure that English is something I need to be good at because I know that when I get a job I will have to write lots of reports and papers. So I decided that I will work hard in this class to learn how to write better.

Institutional data speaks to the success of the ILC. To date, the cumulative retention within the ILC is on target for 45% — better than double the historic rate of 20-30% for engineering students beginning their studies at the algebra level. Overall, GPA for those retained in engineering is 2.64.