In 2014, only seven out of 10 first-year engineering students at Oregon State University returned to continue their engineering education the following year. The College of Engineering’s retention rate stubbornly trailed behind the university-wide rate by more than 10% for another half-dozen years; the gap for underrepresented minorities was even wider.
To determine why so many students were turning away from engineering and what could be done to reverse the trend, the college convened a special task force in 2019. Its findings led to Engineering+, a comprehensive overhaul of the first-year engineering program, which was rolled out for the 2021-2022 academic year.
One persistent obstacle was the enervating disappointment experienced by many students who had to complete a challenging series of math, physics, and chemistry prerequisites before starting their engineering courses.
“Implementing Engineering+ brought students into the world of engineering faster,” said Scott Ashford, Kearney Dean of Engineering. “If you’re interested in engineering enough to go to college for it, you don’t want to wait a year before learning what engineers do. You want to get to the fundamentals and start working with other future engineers.”
Students were becoming frustrated or losing interest waiting so long to “do engineering,” added Natasha Mallette, director of Engineering+.
“With Engineering+, the first-year curriculum has been reconfigured, so that students become involved quickly with engineering coursework, and that really helps to maintain their interest,” Mallette said.
Enhancing understanding in engineering majors
Another barrier was the superficial understanding that incoming students frequently had about their majors — and about engineering in general. According to the task force, students were likely to possess a fuzzy grasp of what their majors entailed, what careers they led to, and whether they had the temperament, inclination, or talent to thrive in their chosen programs. Frequently, major selection was based on little more than family encouragement or a brief conversation with a guidance counselor. As a result, one-third of students changed majors before the end of their first year.
“Students who changed majors could incur a penalty, because they’d lose course credits,” said David Blunck, associate dean of undergraduate programs and professor of mechanical engineering, who oversees Engineering+. “That doesn’t happen anymore.”
Mallette emphasized that Engineering+ gives students ample time to evaluate their major and investigate other options. If they decide to switch majors, they can smoothly navigate the process with the help of advisors and without disrupting their academic progress.
At the heart of Engineering+ is a sequence of three required foundational courses. Each consists of a collection of different classes that cover a broad range of topics. Instead of being structured around a major or discipline, as are traditional engineering classes, each Engineering+ class revolves around a theme, such as sustainable fuels, clean energy, space travel, sensor technology, robotics, programming concepts, climate resilience, environmental justice, and many more.
Real-world applications of engineering
All of the classes blend traditional lectures with small, informal studios, where students work in teams on assignments that transform concepts and theories from lectures into applied, real-world solutions.
For example, in a class about how different engineering disciplines interact during a mission to Mars, students cultivated algae to produce oxygen, food, and fuel for the journey. In other classes, they designed and built miniature hot-air balloons, then released them in the atrium of Owen Hall; they built and tested a small trebuchet; they evaluated the energy consumed by different wood-burning stoves; they used open-source computer code to design a power grid for rural communities; and they designed, built, and tested solar-powered lithium-ion battery chargers.
“Our intention is to give students a chance to be involved in realistic, collaborative engineering activities at a comfortable but challenging academic level,” said Paula De Szoeke, assistant director for Engineering+ and a senior instructor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering.
Engineering+ students are encouraged to enroll in classes that are unrelated to their major, which sometimes leads to unexpected outcomes.
“I’ve known students who didn’t think they liked a particular topic, but once they were exposed to it through a class, they were surprised at how much they enjoyed it,” Mallette said. “Some have even changed majors as a result.”
Each term, students are asked about their Engineering+ experience. Feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
“On balance, they tell us that that they’re inspired, engaged, and generally pleased with the high level of experiential learning in the classes,” Mallette said.
Engineering+ sees positive impacts
A 2023 conference paper co-authored by Mallette concluded that Engineering+ promoted engineering as a collaborative and inclusive discipline and reinforced student connections with the field. Students reported improvements in problem-solving, teamwork, communication, algorithmic thinking, engineering design, and computer literacy. Many said they believed that those improvements occurred during their first year in the college. Encouragingly, 93% said they felt like they belonged here.
“A sense of belonging is essential to student success,” Ashford said. “When students feel they belong, they are more likely to engage in their courses and persist in their education. Engineering+ has revitalized the first-year student experience, and I’m grateful to all of the dedicated people who made it happen.”
Overall, students expressed positive views about the program. One student wrote, “Previously, I was very afraid of coding, and it seemed like a large part of engineering. Now that I understand some of the basics, I’m less intimidated and more enthusiastic.” Another wrote, “I am more enthusiastic, because through these engineering courses I have become a better problem solver, and I want to keep experiencing that feeling throughout my career."
Since the launch of Engineering+, the low retention rates that prompted its creation have reversed their downward trend, climbing from 75% in academic year 2020 to 78%, 79%, and 83% in academic years 2021, 2022, and 2023. Retention rates for underrepresented minorities rose even more sharply, from 69% in academic year 2020 to 78% in 2023.
“We strongly believe that Engineering+ has been a big contributor to those improvements,” Mallette said. “So, we’re very pleased with the results.”