Exploration of First-Year Students’ Resource Networks to Complete Engineering Homework

This Research Work in Progress paper presents our initial findings using network analysis to explore the resources (peers, teaching assistants, faculty, textbook, class notes, online, etc.) first-year engineering students use to complete homework in their engineering course. We designed a survey with open and closed-ended items to begin to explore what resources students use and why they use specific resources when completing a course assignment. Based on the data related to what resources students use, we created a weighted edge network using the statistical software, R. Through this analysis we identified the pairs of resources that were used the most by students. The open-ended survey responses were analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis to understand why students use specific resources. This analysis identified four themes (contingency, isolation, convenience, and comfort) that represent how students make decisions about resources to use when completing homework.