Focus on Retention in Cohorts of Engineering Students - Plus (FORCES+)

这个项目将追求一个有前途的方法来招聘，留住和毕业的工程专业学生谁从社区学院转入四年制学位课程。德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校（UTA）工程学院（COE）将实施一项名为：FORCES+（专注于工程学生群体的保留，以提供持久的大学成功）的计划。该计划将提供奖学金和支持活动，以新生和新的转学生在工程专业。FORCES+的目标是为经济困难，有才华的本科工程专业学生增加教育机会;提高大一和转学生的保留率;并增加参与实习，合作教育，研究经验或与其专业相关的服务机会。该项目在这个西班牙裔服务机构的重点是建立队列的学生进入与准备程度相当的钱包工程专业。即将入学的学生将根据微积分和物理等工程预科课程的完成程度和成功程度形成。然后，该项目利用一个大学范围内所需的大学成功课程组转移到课程的同一部分的学生。本课程将为转学生建立一个队列奠定基础。 这种方法将使课程能够解决转学生的具体需求问题。 这种模式是基于一种方法，被认为是成功的一年级学生在这所机构。学术上的成功也将通过提供职业发展和职业过渡的支持，通过可选的合作研究与教师或基于行业的实习与当地行业合作伙伴培育。FORCES项目将通过安置考试、调查、重点小组和离职面谈，对项目进行形成性和总结性评价。这些将用于基线数据和纵向评价。 在保持新生和转学生的课程，导致工程专业课程的预期改善将衡量沿着毕业率和参与， 实习、合作教育、研究经验和/或服务机会。

This project will pursue a promising approach towards recruiting, retaining, and graduating engineering students who transfer from a community college into a four-year degree program. The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) College of Engineering (COE) will implement a program called: FORCES+ (Focus On Retention in Cohorts of Engineering Students to Provide Lasting University Success). The program will provide scholarships and support activities to incoming freshman and new transfer students in engineering majors. The objectives of FORCES+ are to increase educational opportunities for financially needy, talented undergraduate engineering students; improve retention of freshman and transfer students; and increase participation in internships, cooperative education, research experiences or service opportunities related to their majors. The project at this Hispanic Serving Institution focuses on building cohorts that of students that enter with comparable levels of readiness to purse an engineering major. Cohorts of incoming students will be formed based on the extent of completion and success in pre-engineering courses such as calculus and physics. The project then utilizes a university-wide required college success course to group transfer students into the same section of the course. This course will then form the foundation for building a cohort for the transfer students. The approach will enable the course to address issues specific to the needs of transfer students. This model is based on an approach that was found to be successful for first year students at this institution. Academic success will also be fostered through support provided for career development and career transitions through optional collaborative research with faculty or industry-based internships with local industry partners. The FORCES project will carry out formative and summative evaluations of the project through placement exams, surveys, focus groups and exit interviews. These will be used in the context of both baseline data and longitudinal evaluation. Expected improvements in retention of freshman and transfer students in coursework leading up to the engineering professional programs will be measured along with graduation rates and participation in internships, cooperative education, research experiences and/or service opportunities.