BCSER: IID: Using Social Network Analysis to Evaluate the Impact of Communities on Engineering Majors

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This project aims to serve the national interest by improving retention among first-year engineering majors. Research shows that many students who plan to major in engineering leave the field after their first year in college. This attrition is particularly true for women students and students from ethnic or racial groups that are underrepresented in STEM. The low retention rates are disturbing, since the nation has a growing need to increase its engineering workforce. Strategies known to support retention of engineering students include student engagement in a learning community and access to strong social networks. This research project will investigate how students participate in and experience engineering communities in their first year of college. Specifically, the study will use Social Network Analysis to quantify the relationship between engagement in engineering communities and retention for first year engineering students. Potential implications of this research include a better understanding of how to design the first-year experience of engineering majors to promote the development of community and, thus, promote greater persistence in the major. The overarching goal of this study is to address the performance inequities in introductory STEM courses by creating more inclusive spaces that support students’ academic development. Previous research indicates a connection among learning communities, student engagement, social networks, and academic performance. Social Network Analysis provides a method for quantitatively describing these relationships. The goals of this project are to a) assess equity and inclusion in learning spaces for engineering students, including classrooms, b) quantify engineering students' access to social capital through peer networks in introductory courses, c) determine if access to social capital is a predictor for engineering students' academic success, and d) understand the relationships between student connection to the engineering community and their first-year experience in the engineering program. More specifically, the research focuses on students from marginalized or minoritized groups, including ethnic/racial minorities, women, first generation college students, and transfer students. The research objective is to determine if students from these groups have the same centrality within the community as other students. Centrality is a measure of connectedness, or how well the student is positioned within the community to give and receive information. The project will also determine if centrality in a community is a predictor of engineering students' academic success as determined by performance on concept inventories, overall course performance, and declaration of an engineering subdiscipline. This project is supported through the EHR Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) competition that is designed to build individuals’ capacity to carry out high-quality, fundamental STEM education research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.