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

这个项目将寻求一种很有前途的方法来招募、留住和毕业从社区大学转到四年制学位课程的工程专业学生。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+（专注于留住工程专业学生，以提供持久的大学成功）的计划。该项目将为工程专业的新生和新转学生提供奖学金和支持活动。“力+”计划的目标是为有经济困难、有才能的工程专业本科生增加受教育的机会；提高新生和转学生的留存率；多参加与专业相关的实习、合作教育、研究经历或服务机会。这个西班牙裔服务机构的项目重点是建立具有相当准备水平的学生进入工程专业的队列。新入学的学生将根据工程预科课程（如微积分和物理）的完成程度和成功程度进行分组。然后，该项目利用大学范围内的必修大学成功课程，将转学生分组到课程的同一部分。这门课程将成为建立转学生群体的基础。这种方法将使课程能够解决转校生需要的具体问题。这种模式是基于一种被发现对该机构的一年级学生很成功的方法。通过与教师的可选合作研究或与当地行业合作伙伴的行业实习，为职业发展和职业过渡提供支持，也将促进学术成功。FORCES项目将通过分班考试、调查、焦点小组和离职面谈对项目进行形成性和总结性评估。这些将用于基线数据和纵向评价。工程专业课程的新生和转校生保留率的预期改善将与毕业率和实习、合作教育、研究经历和/或服务机会的参与一起衡量。

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.