Academic Success Skills in First-Year Chemical Engineers: A Before and After Look at the Pandemic | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

Academic Success Skills in First-Year Chemical Engineers: A Before and After Look at the Pandemic


Abstract:

The introductory chemical engineering course for first-year undergraduate students at the University of Rochester includes workshops focused on building success skills to...Show More

Abstract:

The introductory chemical engineering course for first-year undergraduate students at the University of Rochester includes workshops focused on building success skills to help students persist academically in the major. The instructor of these workshops has administered Landis' Academic Success Skills Survey during the fall semester since 2015, including Fall 2020, to better understand how the workshop activities and assignments contribute to students' academic success as future chemical engineers. In this Innovative Practice Full Paper, we compare students' pre-post course results related to self-perceived improvements in their academic success skills between the Fall 2019 semester (a regular in-person semester) and the Fall 2020 semester (a hybrid remote/socially-distanced semester). In Fall 2020, students' normalized gains in overall perception of their success skills were larger, students perceived more statistically significant improvements on individual success skills, students attributed more of their improvements to the course itself, and students' opinion of the University remained constant compared to Fall 2019 (i.e., the hybrid semester did not result in a more negative attitude about the University). Students also self-reported feeling a sense of community with their peers and faculty in the course, which indicates that the course may have been a vital cornerstone not only to students' overall academic careers in chemical engineering, but also to their resilience in the face of a uniquely challenging semester during a global pandemic. Based on these results, we offer detailed descriptions of the activities and assignments of the workshops for other first-year engineering instructors to consider for their own courses moving forward.
Date of Conference: 13-16 October 2021
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 20 December 2021
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Conference Location: Lincoln, NE, USA

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